Let f:ℝ→ℝ be a locally integrable function of bounded lower oscillation. The paper contains the proofs of sharp strong-type, weak-type and exponential estimates for the mean oscillation of f. In particular, this yields the precise value of the norm of the embedding BLO⊂BMOp, 1≤p<∞. Higher-dimensional analogues for anisotropic BLO spaces are also established.