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: 1, Interesting) by frz on Thursday May 28 2015, @09:44PM
I found this and it alludes [scientificamerican.com] to a theoretical link but doesn't give evidence that CFCs have been detected in the stratosphere or close to it. Wikipedia's lone source that CFC's are well distributed in the ozone layer [wikipedia.org] doesn't claim any such thing. Cl0 in the ozone holes may have a relationship to man-made CFCs but if the link has been studied scientifically I can't find it.
Anybody got a reliable source on actual CFC levels in the stratosphere?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @10:59PM
Here [nasa.gov] are a few [ornl.gov] links [mit.edu].
This [nature.com], and the references cited within.
It shouldn't be too surprising. The stratosphere is loaded with aerosols and dust that continually churn between the troposphere and stratosphere, and these particles are much much bigger than the light atomic gas molecules.