Houston Chronicle – 2/9/96
Hole in ozone layer spreads
Scientist says area open longer, has moved into southern Chile
Reuters News Service
SANTIAGO, Chile - The hole in the
atmosphere’s ozone layer over Antarctica
has spread north into southern Chile and
remains open longer each year, a Chilean
researcher said Thursday.
Under the slogan “Let’s protect the ozone
layer!” the campaign includes TV spots and
posters advising people to avoid the midday
sun, wear strong sunblocks and hats, and use
sunglasses.
Depletion in the upper atmosphere’s ozone
layer, which filters out the sun’s ultraviolet
rays, was discovered last year to have spread
as far as the south-central Chilean city of
Puerto Montt, about 900 miles north of the
tip of South America, the research scientist,
Luis da Silva, said.
Caused in part by manmade refrigerants and
other
chemicals
floating
into
the
atmosphere, the ozone hole has extended in
previous years to the area around Punta
Arenas, at the southern tip of South
America, he said.
Da Silva, working with a team of Chilean
and Argentine physicists, said that earlier
studies showed the ozone hole used to
appear for only days or weeks during the
southern hemisphere spring.
“By contrast, it now appears m September
and lasts until November,” Da Silva,
professor at Federico Santa Maria
University in Santiago, said.
The findings were released as the
government environmental board began a
national television campaign to increase
awareness about the danger of ultraviolet
radiation caused by the ozone hole.
“Last year its presence was detected up to
Puerto Montt,” he said. Puerto Montt lies at
about 42 degrees south, or about the same
latitude as New York or Rome in the
northern hemisphere.
Lesser damage to the ozone layer was
detected in Chile as far north as Antofagasta,
which lies on the Tropic of Capricorn 800
miles north of Santiago.
The research, carried out by the group’s own
sensory equipment, coincided in part with
those in a study last year by the Chilean
state meteorological service.
That study found unusually high UV
radiation levels in central Chile during the
weeks of heaviest ozone depletion in
Antarctica.