• Question: what is responsible for damagimg the ozone layer?

    Asked by courtneywilliamson to Chris, Dave, David, Fiona, Jack on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Chris Mansell

      Chris Mansell answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      There are chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (or CFCs for short) that damage the ozone layer. (There are other chemicals too but I think CFCs are the main ones responsible for damaging the ozone layer.) These chemicals were used in fridges for a while. When governments around the world realised how seriously these CFCs were damaging the ozone layer, they put in policies to drastically reduce their usage.

    • Photo: David Freeborn

      David Freeborn answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Hi courtneywilliamson,

      As Chris says, chlorofluorocarbons/CFCs from fridges and spray-cans are responsible for damaging the Ozone layer. These CFCs react with ozone and deplete it from the atmosphere.

      The good news is that in the last few years, the Ozone layer has been recovering, and the use of CFCs has reduced a lot!
      You can see how it’s slowly recovered here: the red on these images is the size of the hole in the ozone layer:

      http://cdn.media.discovermagazine.com/~/media/Images/Issues/2013/May/ozone-hole.jpg?mw=900&mh=600

      This is a great example of how government policies can help the environment and benefit the whole planet. We now urgently need governments across the world to limit greenhouses gases as well- these are a cause of global warming.

    • Photo: Jack Miller

      Jack Miller answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Yep, Chris & Dave have the answer here. CFCs are one of the main culprits, and they’ve been banned in everything in the EU except medical gases — the two main anaesthetic gasses used on people and animals (isoflurane and sevoflurane, and yes, flurane as it’s a drug name and not its real structure…) are CFCs and don’t get on well with the ozone layer at all. However, every time people use anaesthetic gasses, they also have to have a way of removing them (not least so the surgeon doesn’t get anaesthetised too!) safely from the atmosphere the patient breathes. So, although they’re still in use, they don’t get released into the atmosphere — they get adsorbed into a carbon filter, which can then be disposed of safely.

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