Cape Town - Scientists have made a new discovery that argues four new gases are present in the earth's atmosphere that damages the earth's ozone layer.
Researchers are trying to also determine the sources of these gases and suggest that pesticides, refrigerators and other similar industrial enterprises may be the culprit.
The new gasses were found in air samples from Tasmania, Australia and Greenland.
The earth's ozone layer is responsible for protecting us from ultra-violet rays that may cause skin cancers and other life threatening issues. In 1987 the UN created the Montreal Protocol which banned or phases out chemicals that deteriorated the ozone
According to Johannes Laube a writer from the University of East Anglia in England the concentrations of new gasses are not a threat to the ozone layer as yet.
Scientists believe that 74 000 tons of these four gasses have been let out into the atmosphere. Before the 1960's non of these gases were present according to the journal Nature Geoscience.
There are according to Laube loopholes within the Montreal Protocol that need to be tightened. These loopholes permit certain industries to emit gasses that are potentially harmful.
A hole in the ozone was discovered in the 1980s but with the ban on damaging chemicals, the hole is on target to recover within the next 50 years.
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/1kaWBYJ
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