THE OZONE LAYER

The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth's stratosphere (layer of the atmosphere) that absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation. It contains high concentrations of ozone (O₃) in relation to other parts of the atmosphere, although still small in relation to other gases in the stratosphere.

Ozone is present in the earth’s stratosphere and comes into being by ultraviolet light colliding with oxygen molecules containing two oxygen atoms (O2), and dividing them into individual oxygen atoms. There after the atomic oxygen then combines with unbroken O2 to create ozone, O3. This critically important gas in the atmosphere is what shields us from the harmful UV or ultraviolet rays coming from the sun; in particular UV-C which is the most detrimental to human health.

Ozone depletion really has to do with two separate, but interconnected truths: a steady fall by as much as 4% per decade in the total quantity of ozone in the Earth’s stratosphere (ozone layer) and a much bigger decline ozone around the Earth’s arctic and Antarctic regions across the same period. This is referred to as the ozone hole.

Today, there is widespread concern that the ozone layer is deteriorating due to the release of pollution containing the chemicals chlorine and bromine. Such deterioration allows large amounts of ultraviolet B rays to reach Earth, which can cause skin cancer and cataracts in humans and harm animals as well.

Extra ultraviolet B radiation reaching Earth also inhibits the reproductive cycle of phytoplankton, single-celled organisms such as algae that make up the bottom rung of the food chain. Biologists fear that reductions in phytoplankton populations will in turn lower the populations of other animals. Researchers also have documented changes in the reproductive rates of young fish, shrimp, and crabs as well as frogs and salamanders exposed to excess ultraviolet B.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chemicals found mainly in spray aerosols heavily used by industrialized nations for much of the past 50 years, are the primary culprits in ozone layer breakdown. When CFCs reach the upper atmosphere, they are exposed to ultraviolet rays, which causes them to break down into substances that include chlorine. The chlorine reacts with the oxygen atoms in ozone and rips apart the ozone molecule.

One atom of chlorine can destroy more than a hundred thousand ozone molecules, according to the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The ozone layer above the Antarctic has been particularly impacted by pollution since the mid-1980s. This region’s low temperatures speed up the conversion of CFCs to chlorine. In the southern spring and summer, when the sun shines for long periods of the day, chlorine reacts with ultraviolet rays, destroying ozone on a massive scale, up to 65 percent. This is what some people erroneously refer to as the "ozone hole." In other regions, the ozone layer has deteriorated by about 20 percent.

About 90 percent of CFCs currently in the atmosphere were emitted by industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere, including the United States and Europe. These countries banned CFCs by 1996, and the amount of chlorine in the atmosphere is falling now. But scientists estimate it will take another 50 years for chlorine levels to return to their natural levels.