Study Cites Harm to Children Caused by Ozone Pollution : Health: American Lung Assn. report ranks county among top five areas with the highest levels of the contaminant in the country.

Nearly half a million children under age 14 may have been exposed to unhealthful levels of ozone pollution in Orange County during the first three years of this decade, according to a report released Thursday by the American Lung Assn.

The county had the fifth highest ozone levels in the country between 1991 and 1993, putting thousands of children and other vulnerable groups at risk of serious respiratory illnesses, including infections and asthma, according to the report.

Three other Southern California counties--Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino--and Harris County, Tex., topped the list of worst ozone offenders.

The report, titled “Danger Zones, Ozone Pollution and Our Children,” estimates that the county’s approximately 474,000 residents under 14--nearly 20% of the overall population--were at risk of being exposed to harmful ozone levels during the three-year period.

Based on the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the report notes that ozone levels in Orange County ranged from 0.13 and 0.19 parts per million, depending on the measurement method. These levels exceeded the federal ozone standard of 0.12 parts per million, and the state’s standard of 0.09.

The paper, released amid a national campaign by the lung association to reduce the federal standard, cites recent studies linking levels under 0.12 to everything from increased hospital admissions to wheezing and chest tightness. The EPA is now reviewing the standard.

The number of days in which ozone levels in Southern California exceed the federal standard actually has been dropping since the late 1970s, according to data from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. But lung association officials said Thursday that the levels still are dangerously high and cited the decline as evidence that tightening air quality standards works.

Nationwide, according to the report, minority children are more likely than whites to live in ozone-polluted areas. In Orange County, 1990 census data indicate nearly a third of the county’s population of children under 14 were Latino.

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“The human cost is the key factor we need to look at,” said Carol Kawanami, a board member of the American Lung Assn. of Orange County and a former president of the association’s national board.

Youngsters pay heavily for pollution because they spend much of their time outdoors in the summer--when ozone levels are highest--and do not have fully developed biological defenses against pollutants, the report said.

Because their respiration rate is more rapid, “the air gets into their body in higher concentrations,” said Dr. Sherwin A. Gillman, an allergy specialist familiar with the study.

Once inside, the pollutant can cause chronic inflammation of the airways and lung scarring, setting a child up for infections and perhaps lifelong respiration problems, according to Gillman and the report.

Gabriela Gutierrez, 13, knows all that firsthand.

The Santa Ana youngster was admitted to Children’s Hospital of Orange County on Monday after having a serious asthma attack. Although it was not clear what prompted the attack, she said breathing sometimes gets tougher during the summer months, when ozone levels are higher.

“It’s like it starts when it’s really hot,” said the teen-ager, speaking from her hospital bed Thursday, as she breathed with the help of oxygen. “I start like breathing really hard.”

She said she tries to avoid the problem by staying off busy streets, to avoid vehicle exhaust, but she can’t seem to escape it entirely.

“I guess if I lived somewhere else I wouldn’t get sick that much,” she said.

Ozone is considered particularly insidious because it is invisible, unlike other pollutants that color Southern California’s summer skies dishwater gray. Ozone is formed through the combination of sunlight, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons--mostly from automobile and industrial emissions.