Good News on Ozone Layer: UN Says It Shows Signs of Recovering

GENEVA — The ozone layer that shields life from the sun's cancer-causing ultraviolet rays is showing its first sign of thickening after years of dangerous depletion, according to a U.N. study released Wednesday. The ozone hole that appears annually over Antarctica has also stopped growing bigger every year, though it will be about a decade before it starts shrinking, said the report co-produced by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Program.

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Past studies have suggested the ozone layer has stopped getting worse. The ozone layer was expected to recover toward its 1980 level by mid-century, or slightly later for Antarctica, where it gets dangerously thin every year between mid-August and November or December.

Experts said the report showed the success of the 1987 Montreal Protocol that banned or phased out man-made gases, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once widely used in refrigerators and spray cans, that damage the layer. That achievement is expected to help prevent 2 million of cases of skin cancer annually by 2030 and other conditions, such as damage to eyes and immune systems.

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— Reuters