Officials Expect More Bad-Air Warnings : Smog: The state has lowered the level of pollution at which advisories must be issued. New technology can help predict such episodes.

Ventura County residents will receive more warnings of unhealthy air in the May-to-October smog season than ever before because of revised state regulations and better advance reporting methods, air quality officials predict.

Effective this month, the state Air Resources Board lowered the level of air pollution at which health advisories must be issued from 0.20 parts of ozone per million to 0.15 p.p.m.

Ozone concentrations in Ventura County air reached the new official warning level an average of 18 times in each of the last three years. The higher level of 0.20 p.p.m. was reached only twice in the county since 1983.

The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District’s existing technology allows engineers to monitor air pollution levels and declare alerts when they occur.

But new computer and satellite equipment that should be in place by March will allow meteorologists to predict smog episodes in advance so that the ill, the very young, the elderly and athletes will know that they should stay indoors, district officials said.

“For health advisories, you need to tell the people the day before so they can be more careful,” said Herman Ragsdale, air quality specialist at the district’s data forecasting center. “The state is now emphasizing forecasting for the advisories rather than just declaring them when they happen.”

The district plans to purchase a $30,000 computer and satellite system from Marta Systems, a nationally known firm based in Santa Paula, Ragsdale said. The system will provide weather maps, satellite imagery and forecasting charts. The district is also buying two satellite dishes to link the computer to national weather information.

“It will be state of the art in forecasting equipment,” said Douglas Tubbs, manager of the monitoring and technical services for the district.

The district will also use the equipment to help determine which days the county’s two Southern California Edison plants should be allowed to burn fuel oil to power their engines and on which days farmers should be permitted to burn field waste and brush.

The new computer system will also assist fire departments by predicting wind patterns during hazardous materials spills or other fire emergencies.

A health advisory triggers a system of warnings throughout the county. The district contacts school districts, day-care centers, retirement communities, hospitals, media and industry representatives who have asked to be notified.

At 0.15 p.p.m., ozone pollution causes respiratory changes including painful breathing, coughing, scratchy throat and inflammation of air passages leading to the lungs, said Dr. Michael Lipsett, public health medical officer for the State Department of Health Services in Berkeley.

“It primarily affects people doing manual labor, children at active play or athletes--people with respiratory rates that are up high enough so that they are taking more ozone into their lungs,” he said. “Several studies show that ozone decreases the ability to perform sustained exercise.”

Among people sensitive to ozone, 0.15 p.p.m. can decrease lung function, including the ability to take a deep breath, he said.

Long-term or chronic exposure to ozone causes lungs to lose their elasticity, inducing premature aging. Ozone has also been indicated as a cause of asthmatic episodes and is now being studied for a possible link to cancer by the National Toxicology Program, Lipsett said.

The new health warning level does not change the level at which a first-stage smog alert is declared. That level, 0.20 ozone p.p.m., triggers minor cutbacks from industry in the use of their fleet vehicles and employee car trips.

A second-stage alert at 0.35 p.p.m. sets off 20% cuts in industrial production, bans construction projects and prohibits deliveries of non-perishable goods. Ventura County has never had a second-stage alert.

The state sets the level at which health effects begin at 0.09 p.p.m., while the federal government sets more lenient standards of 0.12 p.p.m. In 1990, Ventura County failed the state standards on 100 days and violated federal health standards on 16 days.

Because of favorable weather conditions combined with emission reductions, the air was cleaner in Ventura County in 1990 than it has been since 1973, officials said. The county’s 10-year averages show that state standards are usually violated 130 times each year and federal standards are violated 51 times.