The ozone issue is no longer a local or regional problem. Rather, it has become a global affair, which requires concerted efforts to confront the dangers that the future may carry .. Some may ask: Why is this so much global interest in the issue of weights? The answer lies in the seriousness of the health and environmental impacts, not on humans alone, but on animals, plants and other ecosystems.
In a report published in November 1991, the Environmental Assessment Working Group of the United Nations Environment Program stated that the depletion of the ozone layer and the resulting increase in ultraviolet rays may accelerate the rate of smog formation that remains suspended in the air for several days. As happened in London in 1952 when smog dominated the atmosphere of this city and turned its day into night over a period of a few days, and it led to losses
Fatal and reached about 4 thousand deaths. It also corroded the armor
Ozone may lead to an increase in the rates of non-inflammatory skin cancer by 26%.
As for the UVB rays, it plays a major role in the formation of melanoma skin tumors, which are the most dangerous type, and this means that an estimated 300,000 cases of skin cancer occur annually, and the US share will only be approximately 180 million cases during eighty years, If the international community does not act effectively to stop the depletion of the ozone layer.
Another health hazard to the problem of the deterioration of the state of the ozone layer is the occurrence of cataract, (that is, cataracts). According to the United Nations report (aforementioned), the depletion of ozone at a rate of 10% may cause about 1.7 million people annually to suffer from this disease as a result of their exposure to ultraviolet rays, in addition to the eye infection with glaucoma, due to its inability to resist these rays, and the quantities The increased UV rays that penetrate the ozone layer weaken the effectiveness of the human immune system, and this makes people more vulnerable to infectious diseases, resulting from viruses such as scabies, as well as from bacteria such as tuberculosis and other parasitic diseases.
The negative effects of reducing the ozone layer do not stop on humans alone, so the destruction of the ozone layer and the widening of the hole in this layer contribute to an increase in the temperature of the earth's surface and thus lead to what is known as the phenomenon of global warming.
Perhaps the most affected areas are the tropics, as a result of the high temperature and the strength of the sun's rays. Also, some research indicates that half of the plants studied are sensitive to UVB radiation. Their production decreases and their leaves are smaller, which affects the production of agricultural crops, as some reports indicated, that there is a 23% decrease in soybean production as a result of exposure to this type of radiation. In addition, the chemical structures of some types of plants may change due to this situation, which harms their mineral content and nutritional value, in general.
On the other hand, there are concerns about the weakening of the populations of microorganisms, found in sea and ocean waters, known as phytoplankton, as a result of their exposure to ultraviolet rays, and these organisms are considered an important basis for the food chain in the ecosystems present in fresh and salt water, especially fish, shrimp and others.
Also, phytoplankton play a major role in absorbing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thereby reducing the impact of warming
It also releases oxygen essential for the continuation of life.
What is ozone composed of?
The ozone element is composed of atmospheric oxygen, and the difference between it and molecular oxygen is that the first is triple-bound while molecular oxygen, as it is in its natural state that we inhale, is made of two oxygen atoms, and a reduction process occurs.
Molecular oxygen, which reaches the lower atmosphere to ozone over the tropics, by the action of high-energy ultraviolet rays, with wavelengths 240-300 nanometers, and from there ozone diffuses into the atmosphere at heights ranging from 20 to 50 km above the earth's surface. Ozone is considered one of the important components in the atmosphere, where its concentration reaches approximately -1 microgram per gram of air, but breathing in ozone-rich air affects the respiratory system and the nervous system and results in shortness of breath, headache and fatigue and these symptoms appear clearly among young children Age and youth, and that is why school children in Los Angeles, where ozone levels are high, are forced to stay inside school buildings when the ozone concentration in the air reaches 35 parts per million. A demonic element. Researchers at the US Space Agency have tried for more than a quarter of a century to use ozone as a fuel to launch spacecraft, and some have described it as a demonic element, and perhaps the most important reason that threatens the ozone layer in industrial air pollution caused by nitrogen oxides and compounds known as "chlorofluorocarbons", as well as The nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide that are launched from pre-sonic airplanes that fly through and penetrate the level of the ozone layer lead to stimulating the decomposition of ozone by chemical reactions. The first to provide real scientific predictions about the danger of CFCs on the ozone layer were the two scientists Doland and Mulina, who specialize in the chemistry of atmospheric phenomena at the University of California, USA, where in 1974 they created laboratory conditions similar to those in the middle and outside the upper layers of the atmosphere, which are the sites that The protective ozone layer is concentrated in it. It has been shown to her that these compounds effectively destroy ozone molecules. These two scientists assumed that chlorofluorocarbons could eventually destroy 20% to 30% of the protective ozone shield completely, threatening all life forms on Earth with dire consequences. While many scientists referred to doubts about the expectations of Doland and Mulina, and most of them believed that the decrease in the ozone layer
Will we ever lose such fresh scenes?
Urgent negotiations
In view of the dangerous situation in the ozone layer, a global body consisting of 100 scientists met in 1987 to discuss all available information and to take decisions to solve this issue. In the same year, the United Nations called for urgent negotiations to reduce the production and use of CFCs internationally. On 9/15/1987, 91 countries signed what was later known as the Montreal Protocol, and these countries agreed to reduce their production of CFCs, which amounted to 90% of the total. Global production. The objective of the protocol was amended in 1990 in London to make the circulation of these substances strictly prohibited in 2000.
Solutions
There is consensus among governmental and non-governmental organizations in the world that environmentally acceptable alternatives to CFCs and halons will provide encouraging results in the long term. But the difficulty in protecting the ozone layer lies in the technical and financial obstacles, and one of the alternatives that have been most developed to meet the environmental, economic, industrial and consumption requirements is electrothermal cooling and acoustic wave cooling. In this context, an American company provided a small household refrigerator that works with a sterling cycle, which depends on the principle of heating a fixed volume of gas such as hydrogen or helium, which leads to high pressure. The company claimed that the efficiency of the developed refrigerator is better compared to the traditional refrigerator.
And in Mexico, scientists have succeeded in making ice blocks by harnessing solar energy, and in this regard also a thermocouplex-type star-type cooling device was manufactured and was experimented with superiority on board the Discovery spacecraft.
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