The UN treaty to protect the ozone layer has prevented a likely surge in skin cancer in Australia, New Zealand and northern Europe, a study published on Tuesday said.
If the 1987 Montreal Protocol had never been signed, the ozone hole over Antarctica would have grown in size by 40 percent by 2013, it said.
Ultra-violet levels in Australia and New Zealand, which currently have the highest mortality rates from skin cancer, could have risen by between eight and 12 percent.
In northern Europe, depletion of the ozone layer over the Arctic could have boosted ultra-violet levels in Scandinavia and Britain by more than 14 percent, it said.
http://news.discovery.com/earth/world-already-reaping-benefits-from-ozone-treaty-150526.htm
[Abstract]: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150526/ncomms8233/full/ncomms8233.html
(Score: 2, Informative) by LionKimbro on Thursday May 28 2015, @07:38PM
You can learn about how it works here: http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Kinetics/Case_Studies%3A_Kinetics/Depletion_of_the_Ozone_Layer [ucdavis.edu]
Here's a nice and detailed pictorial representation: http://www.theozonehole.com/ozonedestruction.htm [theozonehole.com]
Wikipedia also has a very nice write-up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion [wikipedia.org]
There are references, chemical models, measurements, all over the place.