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Product Description This digital document is a journal article from Environmental Pollution, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Description: Ozone (O"3) exposure at Italian background sites exceeds UN/ECE concentration-based critical levels (CLe"c), if expressed in terms of AOT40. Yet the occurrence of adverse effects of O"3 on forests and crops is controversial. Possible reasons include (i) ability of response indicators to provide an unbiased estimate of O"3 effects, (ii) setting of current CLe"c in terms of cut-off value and accumulation level, (iii) response functions adopted to infer a critical level, (iv) environmental limitation to O"3 uptake and (v) inherent characteristics of Mediterranean vegetation. In particular, the two latter points suggest that critical levels based on accumulated stomatal flux (CLe"f) can be a better predictor of O"3 risk than CLe"c. While this concept is largely acknowledged, a number of factors may limit its applicability for routine monitoring. This paper reviews levels, uptake and vegetation response to O"3 in Italy over recent years to discuss value, uncertainty and feasibility of different approaches to risk assessment.