`Summer of Smog' has Northeast all choked up

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. Much of the Northeast is panting and heavingthrough its thickest smog in years.

In Connecticut, the smog has been at its worst since 1993. InMaryland, any more hot and stagnant weather is likely to yield thatstate's highest levels in years.

Environmental regulators blame the 1997 Summer of Smog on quirksof the annual weather cycle. They say hot, still, sunny weatherconspired with the position of the jet stream to produce exceptionalconditions for making ozone - popularly called smog."It's kind of like we got hit in the bull's-eye," said PaulMiller, a policy analyst for the Northeast States for Coordinated AirUse Management, set up by government health officials around theNortheast.Smog forms when sunlight cooks chemicals released into the airlargely by cars and factories. It is found in the lowest slice ofthe atmosphere near the ground, not in the so-called ozone layer ofthe stratosphere.Smog worsens asthma, allergies, and many lung ailments.Children who play outside, adults who jog or work outside, and theelderly are especially susceptible.Air quality monitors say this season's smog provides a reminderthat much of the Northeast still violates federal safety standardsfor pollution, despite general improvement over the years. They sayit demonstrates the need for new smog-control efforts under way insome states.The Northeast, from the northern section of Virginia to Maine,has strained under 24 smog days so far this year - with levels abovethe U.S. standard at more than one monitoring station, according toMiller. The region's most recent peak years were 1995, with 25 smogdays, and 1993 with 38. There were 60 in 1988 - an indication of theoverall trend downward.Some of the highest smog levels this summer were recorded inConnecticut, part of which is in the New York City metropolitan area,and Maryland, where commuters clog the highways between Baltimore andWashington.In Connecticut, the 13 smog days so far are the most since 1993,which had 15, according to regulators in that state. Maryland hashad 14 so far, equaling 1995, that state's monitors said. The 16smog days in 1993 set the record for the last five years.Pharmacist Jeff Messina of the Fort Hill Pharmacy in Groton,Conn., said he has noticed a considerable increase this summer inpatients complaining about respiratory trouble.