The influence of ambient ozone on the incidence of bone fractures especially among the elderly.

Elevated levels of breatheable ozone will reduce the amount of UV radiation in the range of 280-305 nm reaching the surface of earth. This range of UV converts the provitamin 7-dehydrocholesterol to vitamin D, within the human. Since most typical diets contain low levels of vitamin D, the role of UV related vitamin D synthesis in the skin is considered to provide very important contributions to the total vitamin D content of the blood. Thus, elevated levels of ambient ozone should result in a decreased level of vitamin D synthesis which may be expressed as an increase in the incidence of histological osteomalacia and ultimately bone fractures, especially among the elderly.