Total ozone measurements made with Dobson spectrophotomers in polluted air are subject to errors caused by interfering trace gas species that absorb solar ultraviolet radiation. While such interference is probably non-existent or small at the majority of Dobson instrument stations throughout the world, errors of up to 25% and 5%, resulting from absorption by SO2 and NO2 respectively, may occur occasionally at a few stations located in extremely polluted atmospheres. Interference by other absorbers, including N2O3, H2O2, HNO3, acetyldehyde, acetone, and acrolein has been found to be negligible. Ozone produced photochemically in polluted near-surface air may occasionally constitute from 5% to 10% of the atmospheric total ozone column. Such ozone interferes with measurements of atmospheric background total ozone.