ozone (Page 3)

Climate change has been causing an unexpectedly rapidthinning of the ozone layer worldwide, as melanoma,previously thought to be a disease of adults, has suddenlybegun increasing in children.

The decline of the ozone layer has been a source of humor ontalk radio programs and among politicians, who have advisedthose with environmental concerns to “get dark glasses.”

Melanoma is among the most dangerous and aggressive cancersknown to man, and its primary cause is excessive exposure toultraviolet radiation in sunlight. Among adults, melanomarates have been explodingfor years, but now the cancer is also beginning to be seenin children.
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Cosmic rays are eating away at the Earth?s protective ozone layer, according to Canadian radiation scientists Qing-Bin Lu and Leon Sanche of the University of Sherbrooke. They claim to have discovered an important process underlying the growing ozone hole over the southern hemisphere. But atmospheric scientists are not so sure.

Lu and Sanche analyzed ozone and cosmic ray data taken from ground stations, weather balloons and satellites. In a paper in Physical Review Letters, they report a strong correlation between cosmic ray intensity and ozone depletion across different levels of the atmosphere and different latitudes. They also found that changes in ozone concentration matched fluctuating cosmic ray intensity between 1979 to 1992.
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