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Date Posted: 05:38:14 09/21/02 Sat
Author: Weird_Enigma
Author Host/IP: 209.252.119.3
Subject: Ozone layer may repair itself

Ozone layer may repair itself
Chlorine levels are dropping because of efforts to ban CFCs
EMMA TINKLER
Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia - Chlorine-based chemical levels in the atmosphere are falling, and the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica should close within 50 years, according to an Australian government study.

Although the ozone layer has not yet begun to repair itself, the hole probably will start closing within five years, and should fully recover by 2050, said Paul Fraser of the Australian government-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

Fraser said ozone layer recovery should result because of international efforts to ban ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons in the mid-1990s.

The organization's atmospheric monitoring has found that chlorine from chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, leveled off in the troposphere -- the lower atmosphere -- two years ago, and is falling for the first time in more than 20 years.

The ozone layer over the southern continent of Antarctica has suffered the most damage from CFCs, which have eaten a hole of about 10 million square miles. The hole is about three times the size of Australia.

The organization and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology have been monitoring and recording the level of chlorine in the troposphere over Australia's southern island state of Tasmania for several years.

Scientists expect the chlorine decrease will lead to a gradual recovery of the ozone layer during the next half-century.

In turn, the ozone recovery will decrease the risk of skin cancer and similar ailments in the far Southern Hemisphere, where damage to the protective layer of gas is most serious.

The ozone recovery will not alleviate projected global warming problems, which is related to the release of other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

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