If we ask peoples about Ozone, most of them could not tell us much about it. Not to many of us are concerned about the air pollution or the Ozone. There are many things that we should know about it. First, Ozone is a colorless gas that can be found in the air we breathe. It is not as simple as it seems. Each of its molecules is composed of three atoms of oxygen that would be more than the oxygen molecules that we need to breathe to sustain life. That additional oxygen atom makes Ozone extremely reactive. Another good thing to know about the Ozone is that it is a major element of urban smog. It exists naturally in the earth's upper atmosphere, where it does its roll in shielding the sun's ultraviolet rays. It is also found close to the earth's surface, where it can be very harmful for the environment. Ozone can limit the ability for humans to take deep breaths and can cause coughing, throat irritation, and breathing discomfort. Now, these are just the facts that everybody should know. Ozone and the air quality are very important for human to live on and see the next generation.

We can not tell if the Ozone is causing some of our health problems. Most of people are not experts with medicine, but Ozone effects the health more than we could think. Though it may seem just like a regular, or a minor problem, it is not very hard to notice it. Even at relatively low levels, Ozone may cause inflammation and irritation of the respiratory track. This happens particularly during physical activity. The symptoms are easy to detect. It can include breathing difficulty, coughing, and throat irritation. Breathing Ozone can especially affect lung function and worsen asthma attacks. Air pollutants like allergens or increase in the susceptibility of the lungs to infections are increased by Ozone. The problem does not seem it is too serious. Fact is that the medical studies have shown that Ozone damages lung tissue. Complete recovery may take several days after exposure has ended. This means that we should be more careful and go by the old saying "Better safe than sorry!".

Yes, there is Ozone on the ground level. It is formed by a chemical reaction between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and oxides of nitrogen in the presence of sunlight. The Ozone concentrations can reach unhealthy levels. This occurs when the weather is hot and sunny with relatively light winds. We would not even think about about where the VOCs come from. There are many sources of it. We can try and list most of the sources of nitrogen and VOCs. They would come from automobiles, trucks and buses. Also the large industry and combustion sources such as utilities. List goes on with small industry like the gasoline dispensing facilities and print shops. We can include the customer products such as paints and cleaners, off-road engines like the aircraft, locomotives, construction equipment, and lawn and garden equipment. It is pretty amazing how many sources there are out there. The sad part is that most of them we have to use in every day life all over the planet. We could not get through the day without most of this equipment, yet we are hurting our planet as much as we are helping ourselves.

like I mentioned before, CFCs are one of the ozone's biggest enemies. They were invented in 1928. Each year the CFCs became more widely used in industry. We should know that they are non-toxic, non-flammable, and cannot be broken down easily. That is a quality, which allows them to destroy ozone in the atmosphere for over 100 years. On Earth, the CFCs are inert. Inert means that they never change and do not react to other chemicals. As they move up into the stratosphere, they react with UV radiation. While they are breaking up, CFCs release chlorine atoms, which can destroy ozone for many years. There are five main types of CFCs. Two of them
would be CFC-11 and CFC-12. Until recently they were used for cleaning, making solvents-liquids that dissolve substances, and for soldering metals. At least 70% of CFC-12 comes from refrigerators.  The CFCs have been useful for cleaning computer parts for many years, because they do not damage the computer itself. In the year of 1974 two American scientists first linked the CFCs to ozone depletion. Some of them are produced for essential uses, and will be gradually phased out and replaced.

The best way to save your skin would be to keep out of the sun.  The "hole" in the Ozone Layer allow dangerous UV-B rays to reach earth.  These rays have various harmful effects.  Some of these effects are not yet fully understood.  The immediate effect that the UV-B rays have on people is damage to health, particularly to skin.  Sun block is best to use when out in the sun.  It filters out harmful UV-B rays, and can protect skin from burning and from skin cancer.  Increased amount of UV-B rays filtering through to earth can cause eye disorders, such as cataracts. A cataract blurs vision by the clouding of the lens of the eye.  The UV-B rays can also weaken people's immune system.  If our immune system were weaken, that would mean that we are more vulnerable to illnesses.  Experts say that a 1% decrease of ozone in the layer would lead to 3% increase in skin cancer.  This also means that it would be a big increase in melanoma, which is the life-threatening form of skin cancer.  Many people today want to look tanned and "healthy" all the time.  In order to do so they use artificial sun beds.  These beds use UV rays, like the sun, to darken skin.  These artificial sun beds can be just asdangerous.

Humans have already added over 320 million tons of CFCs to the atmosphere, and some will stay there well into the next century. By December 1995, 150 countries had signed the Montreal Protocol. Some countries decided not to be the members of Montreal Protocol. In 1987, members first met to discus substances that deplete the ozone layer. Since that time they have met six more times. Those meetings did not help much. In some developing countries, CFC use is still on
increase. It is estimated that China used 80% more CFCs in 1995 than it did in 1993. The developing countries were given an extra ten years to phase out ozone depleting chemicals. Many scientist right now are working on ideas to stop the ozone destruction. One of their ides would be to use laser beams to destroy CFCs. Some of their other ideas would be weakening CFCs by pumping gases into the atmosphere, and taking ozone that is at ground level (where it is harmful) and adding it to the ozone layer. That is what scientist can do, we can do some other things to stop the ozone destruction. We could read all we can about the ozone. Get information from environmental groups such as "Friends of the Earth" and "Green Peace". Also we could get it from "Environmental Protection Agency", and newspapers, and magazines. Another way to help would be by recycling. Now, it is possible to recycle refrigerators and fire extinguishers that use ozone-depleting chemicals. We could use ozone friendly pump action spray cans. So we should really do whatever we can to save our planet and ourselves.

Pollution of our environment is getting bigger day after day. Many people care about it, while others sit back and do nothing. Ozone does not concern too many people, but it a very important part of our life. If we just sit back, relax, and do nothing to save the ozone layer today, tomorrow it might be to late. People before us did not help much to save our environment, and if we do the same where will our kids grow up? Ozone is doing a good job of protecting us, but we keep using things that are not ozone friendly and will destroy it eventually. We all know that skin cancer is very damaging and sometimes it is very hard to cure it. So, just think about it. Should we sit
back and let the ozone layer vanish, or do something that will protect it.  Even if we do not care about the ozone today, we should think about the life without it tomorrow. We are all here to make life good for us. We want to be healthy. Just imagine how sad our life would be if every time we go outside, we would have worry about skin cancer. So, let us save the ozone layer today for a better tomorrow.  

There are many ways to destroy the ozone layer. Same as there are many ways to save it. Ozone is very important for humans, as well as for other lives on this planet. It is not so hard to learn about the ozone layer, or how to save it. We should not believe that it is up to huge chemical companies and government to save the ozone layer. Like I said earlier, there are many ways that we can save that one and only ozone layer we have. We should be ready to do whatever it takes to provide a healthy environment for the next generation.  Yes, we have made some progress toward saving it, but let us not give up now. There is still a lot of work to be done. We should really not live just for today, but take time and make a better tomorrow.