International ozone layer day

2001/09/14 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Ingurumena

Image photo 6. It is the poster for the International Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer. That day was created by the United Nations with the aim of raising public awareness about this problem.

Ozone is a molecule made up of three oxygen atoms. It can appear in the stratosphere or troposphere, and having different properties depending on its height, it influences in one way or another the environment. The ozone layer present in the stratosphere protects us from the ultraviolet rays of the Sun. Each ultraviolet photon has the energy necessary to dissociate the ozone molecule, and in each photodissociation a photon disappears. Thus, ozone offers us protection. The other atmospheric gases are not able to remove the waves of this length. Tropospheric ozone, for its part, is a respiratory danger and is a pollutant that participates in the greenhouse effect, so it must be clear that it is necessary to protect it from the ultraviolet rays of the Sun, but that it is harmful
when it appears in the troposphere.

However, September 16 is the day of awareness about the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer and for us to directly address this problem. Since the signing
of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer in 1985, it has been possible to reduce the known CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), the main destroyers of the ozone layer, among other factors by replacing the least harmful HCFCs (hydrochlorofluorocarbons).

High, continues removal of the ozone layer. In fact, the influence of the quantities already emitted is perceived in the long term, so the concentrations of chlorine and bromine in the stratosphere are increasing. In addition, international agreements do not prohibit the production of compounds that destroy the ozone layer (methyl bromide and HCFC). Scientific studies clearly show that the delay in these prohibitions only extends the deadline to solve the ozone layer problem.