The ozone layer that shields life from the sun's cancer-causing ultraviolet rays is showing its first sign of thickening after years of dangerous depletion, accoring to a United Nations study released Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
Experts said it showed the success of a 1987 ban on man-made gases that damage the fragile high-altitude screen, an achievement that would help prevent millions of cases of skin cancer and other conditions, the AP reported.
The ozone hole that appears annually over Antarctica has also stopped growing bigger every year, though it will be about a decade before it starts shrinking, said the report co-produced by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Program, according to the AP.
"International action on the ozone layer is a major environmental success story ... This should encourage us to display the same level of urgency and unity to tackle the even greater challenge of tackling climate change," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said, the AP reported.
Past studies have suggested the ozone layer has stopped getting worse, according to the AP.
"Now for the first time in this report we say that we see indications of a small increase in total ozone. That means recovery of the ozone layer in terms of total ozone has just started," said WMO Senior Scientific Officer Geir Braathen, the AP reported.
The 1987 Montreal Protocol that banned or phased out ozone depleting chemicals, including chlorofluorocarbons once widely used in refrigerators and spray cans, would prevent 2 million cases of skin cancer annually by 2030 according to UNEP, according to the AP. The agreement would also help avert damage to wildlife, agriculture, human eyes and immune systems, the agency added.
"It's a victory for diplomacy and for science and for the fact that we were able to work together," said chemist Mario Molina, the AP reported.
In 1974, Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland wrote a scientific study forecasting the ozone depletion problem, according to the AP. They won the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work.
