Narration: Each morning at work Dr. Terri TenHoor checks an Atlanta web site to see how bad pollution levels will be for the day. TenHoor is a pulmonary and critical care physician with North Side Hospital in Atlanta.

DR. TENHOOR: ‘Okay so I go here to Allergy Central . . .”

Narration: TenHoor's daily check on the internet is to see how bad the pollutants are for that day. They could be particulate matter or man made ozone - a primary component of smog. Both are what scientists classify as respiratory irritants.

DR. TENHOOR: The very typical presentation I see a lot is someone comes to me and says that ‘I have a cold’ and ‘I’ve had it for three months or two months’. And I explain tell them you haven’t had a cold. And I tell them lets look for some other things going on - and a lot of time I find reactive airways diseases underlying it.

Narration: For years NASA has b...
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Promo: In the next episode of Tales from Urban Forests, what living in a hot urban area could mean for your health.

Intro: Since the 1970s, Atlanta, Georgia has grown from a city of about a million people - to a city of four million. The increase has also led to an increase of pollutants, mainly from automobiles. And even though Atlanta recently met the federal standards that specify how high pollutant levels can be at any one-hour period, the city – admittedly - has a long way to go. Today a look at life in Atlanta as it grows in popularity, but also in pollutants. Dave Barasoain (BEAR-es-wayne) from SOUNDPRINT reports.

Outro: As Atlanta continues to grow, so will public health concerns associated with living in a polluted urban area. In the next program, see how the city is writing into law ways to maintain a balance. This program is part of the ongoing series, Tales from Urban Forests. The series is produced by the SOUNDPRINT Media Center, and supported in part by American Forests and the U.S. Forest Service. For more information on the series, please visit trees.soundprint.org.