The Effect Of Ozone Layer Break Our Health

Ozone is the layer of our earth that can protect all of thing that live on the earth but now it can be broken because of human. How come if the Ozone break? How come with everything on the earth??

The function of ozone layer

Ozone forms of oxygen containing three atom instead of the usual two. Ozone in the upper atmosphere (stratosphere) plays a vital role in absorbing many of the harmful components of sunshine and so called as ozone layer. It is one of the essential prerequisites for live to have develoved on this planet. Ozone layer has a function to absorb ultraviolet radiation that has effect to remove much of the harmful part of UVR spectrum as they pass through the stratosphere (the upper atmosphere 10 to 50 km above ground). By the time UVR has passed through the stratosphere, virtually all of the shortest wavelengths (UVC) and most (70-90%) of the intermediate wavelengths (UVB) have been absorbed, leaving the least damaging UVA. The amount of ozone depends on its rate of formation and destruction, and varies naturally according to:

· Regional factors – most ozone is produced over the tropics (where levels of UVR are highest), but then carried away by stratospheric winds to higher latitudes, so that the ozone layer is thickest towards the poles and thinnest around the tropics.

· Seasonal factors – the thickness of the ozone layer remains relatively constant throughout the year in the tropics, but varies considerably at higher latitudes (both north and south), with peak levels occurring in the spring and minimum levels in the autumn.

· Other factors – ozone levels correlate with the 11 year solar sunspot cycle, and may also be influenced by volcanic eruptions (aerosols released by the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 depressed ozone levels for 2-3 years).

The effect for our health if there is a hole in ozone layer

Ozone layer has a function to give protect for our planet like to absorb the UVR and what will be happen if there is a hole there. So there are so many effect for our health such as :

a. Skin cancer



Nonmelanoma Skin Cancers


b. Other skin damage

Other UV-related skin disorders include actinic keratoses and premature aging of the skin. Actinic keratoses are skin growths that occur on body areas exposed to the sun. The face, hands, forearms, and the “V” of the neck are especially susceptible to this type of lesion. Actinic keratoses are a risk factor for squamous cell carcinoma. Chronic exposure to the sun also causes premature aging, which over time can make the skin become thick, wrinkled, and leathery. Since it occurs gradually, often manifesting itself many years after the majority of a person’s sun exposure, premature aging is often regarded as an unavoidable, normal part of growing older. With proper protection from UV radiation, however, most premature aging of the skin can be avoided.

c. Cararacts

Cataracts are a form of eye damage in which a loss of transparency in the lens of the eye clouds vision. If left untreated, cataracts can lead to blindness. Research has shown that UV radiation increases the likelihood of certain cataracts. Although curable with modern eye surgery, cataracts diminish the eyesight of millions of Americans and cost billions of dollars in medical care each year.

What is made ozone hole ?

Ozone is destroyed by reactions with chlorine, bromine, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen gases. Reactions with these gases typically occurs through catalytic processes. A catalytic reaction cycle is a set of chemical reactions which result in the destruction of many ozone molecules while the molecule that started the reaction is reformed to continue the process. Because of catalytic reactions, an individual chlorine atom can on average destroy nearly a thousand ozone molecules before it is converted into a form harmless to ozone. This ozone destruction can make hole on ozone layer that make 100,000 ozone molecule will destroy. This chemical reaction that happen with ozone that attach by the reaction of Cluoro, Fluoro, and Carbon (CFC) can explain with chemical equation below and give us picture about how so danger about effect of using CFC used by human.

Chemical equation

CFCl3 + UV Light ==> CFCl2 + Cl

Cl + O3 ==> ClO + O2

ClO + O ==> Cl + O2

The free chlorine atom is then free to attack another ozone molecule

Cl + O3 ==> ClO + O2

ClO + O ==> Cl + O2

and again …

Cl + O3 ==> ClO + O2

ClO + O ==> Cl + O2

and again… for thousands of times. If this event happent again and again, it will make hole on ozone layer become bigger and bigger and then make the ultraviolet radiation so easy to come to the earth. This event can make so seurius deseases in this world.

And then in antartic as winter arrives, a vortex of winds develops around the pole and isolates the polar stratosphere. When temperatures drop below -78°C (-109°F), thin clouds form of ice, nitric acid, and sulphuric acid mixtures. Chemical reactions on the surfaces of ice crystals in the clouds release active forms of CFCs. Ozone depletion begins, and the ozone “hole” appears.

Natural events such as Volcanic Eruptions can strongly influence the amount of Ozone in the atmosphere.

How can ultraviolet radiation can increase skin cancer?

Exactly how UVR contributes to skin cancers has been the subject of much recent research. UVR (particularly UVB) can directly damage DNA leading to mutations in genes responsible for controlling vital processes such as cell division, cell death, repair of DNA errors, etc. Analysis of tumour samples shows that skin cancer is often associated with mutations in specific genes, including the ras oncogene (a gene that can cause cancer if activated by a mutation) and the p53 tumour suppressor gene. As well as these direct mechanisms, it is also thought that UVR (particularly UVA) may act indirectly, for instance by reacting with other chemicals in the body (e.g. melanin) which in turn promote damage to DNA. Alternatively, excessive exposure to UVR is known to suppress the immune system, and this might increase the risk of cancers developing.

(It is my paper when I take course in Global English Course (GEC). I don’t know there is none can thinking about so big effect about this happen. They ask me a question like this, what the advantages of your paper that you had write………… Oh I think I haven’t to answer it cause everyone about this effect and then nowdays there is so many action that wanna stop the global warming…………. So waht the answer is!!)

I can’t write it if there is no reference where I had got information


2. Human health and environment, ed. E. Chivian, M. McCally, H. Hu, and A. Haines, 139-50. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

3. U.S. Enviromental Protection Agency

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