Abu Dhabi Awareness Campaigns for World Ozone Day

prepares to host the International Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer on September 16th with various awareness campaigns from the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi targeting consumers in an effort to improve behaviour which contributes to depleting the ozone layer.

Starting next Tuesday, which marks the International Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the Environment Agency will be communicating with the general public requesting that they refrain as much as possible from releasing CFCs and halogens into the atmosphere. The public will also be asked to reduce the use of air fresheners and Aerosols containing these substances and to use ozone-friendly products instead.

On January 23, 1995, the United Nations General Assembly declared September 16 as the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer to coincide with the signing the Montreal Protocol on the same day in 1987. The UAE was one of the first 150 countries to sign the Convention and to commit to the protection of the ozone layer.

In 2005 the importance of the ozone layer attained global recognition; today preliminary estimates indicate that the international convention for the protection of the ozone layer has already prevented tens of millions of deaths caused by cancer and hundreds of millions of cancer cases.

The UAE signed the Vienna Convention and Montreal Protocol in 1989, as well as the UAE issued Federal Law No.13 (1999) regulating the import of ozone-depleting substances, which came into effect in July 1999, and the UAE Ministerial Decree No.16 (2003) imposing fees on licenses issued by the Federal Environment Agency to import ozone-depleting substances. It is worth noting that there are no ozone-depleting substances produced in the UAE.

Scientists estimate that a 1% decrease in the thickness of the ozone layer would lead to an increase of 1.3% of ultraviolet radiation penetration - an increase which represents a real danger to humans, animals and plant life.

The impact on the environment is dangerous: agricultural production levels would drop; produce would be of inferior quality; and produce would have an altered chemical composition thus creating a change in nutritional value. Ozone layer depletion would also significantly affect the earth's climate, causing global warming, as well as damaging marine flora, fauna, small fish, lobster and shrimp larvae, thus depleting the earth’s fish stock.

Ozone layer depletion would also increase incidences of skin cancer, damage to the cornea, snow blindness, and acute corneal infections. Exposure to increased ultraviolet radiation would also weaken the immune system thus increasing incidences of malignant and infectious diseases such as malaria, and would produce weak responses to vaccinations against epidemics, in addition to deformations in human embryos and DNA.

-alittihad