I have read that the ozone hole is now larger and our exposure to skin cancer
will be greater than ever this summer. A recent article in a health care
magazine suggests that people go out in the sun AFTER 4pm. Sound extreme?
Check the skin cancer rates for yourself. ---S
Global warming may increase ozone hole
March 29, 1999
Despite international measures to reduce atmospheric concentrations
of ozone destroying halogens to protect the ozone layer, global
warming may lead to a weakening of the ozone layer, according to
international scientists.
A team of German, Swiss and British scientists reported in the March 26 issue
of the journal Science that while future climate change is expected to heat up
the lower atmosphere it is likely to cool the air at the altitude of the ozone
layer in the stratosphere.
Cooler air in the stratosphere may lead to increased polar stratospheric
clouds, which are believed to play an essential role in ozone hole chemistry.
In particular, the cloud particles may settle lower atmospheric layers,
thereby removing trace gases which under normal circumstances lead to a
deactivation of ozone-destroying chlorine.
In other words, in a colder stratosphere the sediment particles may inhibit an
important mechanism protecting ozone.
