The ozone hole over Antarctica is likely to close within 50 years, say Australian scientists after years of grim predictions about melting ice caps and increased skin cancer.
Researchers attribute the dramatic turnaround to international measures taken in the mid-1990s to reduce the amount of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, being pumped into the atmosphere.
The chlorine in CFCs, used in aerosols and refrigerators, is held responsible for more than 60 per cent of the damage to the ozone layer.
Scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific, Industrial and Research Organisation said yesterday that CFC levels were falling for the first time since the hole was discovered in the 1980s.
The head of the CSIRO's atmospheric research division, Paul Fraser, said: 'We have seen declining levels of other ozone-depleting chemicals in the past, but the major one, the CFCs, have continued to grow or remain steady in the atmosphere. Now they're starting to fall.'
He said the declining chlorine levels were proof that international efforts to cut back on CFCs, enshrined in the 1987 Montreal Protocol, had been worthwhile.
