The Ozone Hole

Scientists now know that an ozone hole exists over the entire continent of Antarctica every October and has been getting larger each year. The question now is whether this effect is a warning of a significant change in global ozone or simply an isolated scientific curiosity. Because of its potential importance, however, the ozone hole has generated considerable excitement in the scientific community.

The first indication that October ozone levels were dropping came from Joe C. Farman and his colleagues at the British Antarctica Society, which has measured ozone levels from Halley Bay, Antarctica, since 1957. In May 1985, Farman's group published a paper in Nature showing how total ozone values at Halley Bay were much lower in October than in March, which is an effect that did not appear in the 195

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is is what has caused the holes in the ozone layer. In the 1970's, scientists thought that depletion came from two sources: nitrogen compound emissions from jets that flew in the ozone layer of the stratosphere--they stopped making the jets; atmospheric pollution from nuclear testing--they stopped the atmospheric testing. By stopping these things, they thought the problem would be solved. They were wrong. Soon they came to realize that it was the CFCs causing the problems. Prof. F. Sharwood Rowland at U.C.-Irvine began to do experiments to find out what was happening to the chemicals in the atmosphere. He discovered that the chlorine from the breakdown of CFCs by UV radiation was the problem. Chlorine atoms eat away the ozone layer, and therefore it is quickly depleting. Industries began using CFCs because they do not burn or corrode metal, they do not pose any direct health hazards to workers, and they hold heat and cold, making them ideal insulators. These reasons all make CFCs extremely useful, and scientists are working hard to discover a replacement. According to Tony Vogelsberg of Dupont, "'The transition is going to take time . . . We're talking about retrofitting not one industry, but several industries.'"
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Approximate Word count = 2747
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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