Ozone stratosphere was discovered to be declining, mostly because of increasing concentrations of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and similar chlorinated and brominated organic molecules. The concern over the health effects of the decline led to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the ban on the production of many ozone depleting chemicals and in the first and second decade of the 21st Century the beginning of the recovery of stratospheric ozone concentrations. Ozone in the ozone layer filters out sunlight wavelengths from about 200 nm UV rays to 315 nm, with ozone peak absorption at about 250 nm. This ozone UV absorption is important to life,
Ozone often considered the higher elevations beneficial because of their ozone content. "There is quite a different atmosphere [at higher elevation] with enough ozone to sustain the necessary energy [to work]", wrote naturalist Henry Henshaw, working in Hawaii. Seaside air was considered to be healthy because of its believed ozone content; but the smell giving rise to this belief is in fact that of halogenated seaweed metabolites. Much of ozone's appeal seems to have resulted from its "fresh" smell, which evoked associations with purifying properties. Scientists, however, noted its harmful effects. In 1873 James Dewar and John Gray McKendrick documented that