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News Release

For immediate release
July 25, 2003

Notice of Expanded Smog Advisory

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment is expanding its existing Smog Advisory to include the following additional forecast regions for July 26, 2003:

Halton-Peel	Prince Edward County
Hamilton	Quinte-Northumberland
Huron-Perth	Toronto
Niagara	Waterloo-Wellington-Dufferin
Peterborough/Kawarthas	York-Durham

A Smog Advisory remains in effect for:

Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk	Sarnia-Lambton
Elgin	Windsor-Essex-Chatham-Kent
London-Middlesex-Oxford

The Smog Advisory for all the above regions will be in effect until further notice.

A Smog Advisory is issued when there is a high probability for elevated smog levelsthe next day.

Hot, sunny conditions, coupled with southerly winds blowing in air pollutants from the U.S., are expected to continue and lead to high smog levels over parts of southern Ontario for tomorrow.

Smog is a hazy mix of pollutants made up of ground-level ozone, fine particulate matter and other pollutants. During the summer months, more-than half of Ontario’s smog-causing pollution originates in the United States. In cooler months, domestic sources can be significant contributors to the formation of fine particulate matter.

Ontario has one of Canada’s best air quality monitoring systems. The ministry issues Smog Advisory and Smog Watch notices in order to provide the people of Ontario with the information they need to protect themselves from the potential health effects of smog.

The Web site www.airqualityontario.com contains a list of “spare the air” actions (www.airqualityontario.com/science/spareair.cfm) to help combat smog and minimize its effect on sensitive populations. If you want to learn more about air quality, visit the Ministry of the Environment’s Web site at www.ene.gov.on.ca.

 

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Contact:
John Steele
Communications Branch
(416) 314-6666