Ozone Layers

4 Pages 1021 Words

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Ozone derives from the greek word ozein which means to smell. It was
first discovered in 1839 by Christian Friedrick Schonbein who noticed it
because of its distinctive acrid smell. He discovered this at the
University of Basel in Switzerland. Ozone is merely oxygen, but not the
type we breath. Ozone, O3 has three compounds while oxygen has only two.
Ozone is reac- tive, meaning it does not stay still, and wants to go back
to its original state, with two compounds, O2. This is why ozone is
harmful. Ozone always wants to let go of its third compound, and if this
compound reacts with other substances, it could be damaging, especially to
humans.

When discussing with the ozone layer, one should know the four major
atmosphere levels on earth. The troposphere which is between zero and
fifteen kilometers in altitude and has tempera- ture ranges from two
hundred to two hundred ninety kelvins. The second is the stratosphere
which ranges from fifteen to approxi- mately fifty kilometers in altitude
and has temperature ranges from two hundred to two hundred fifty kelvins.
The third level in the atmosphere is mesosphere. This level ranges from
fifty to eighty-five kilometers in altitude and has temperature ranges
between one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kelvins. Finally, the
thermosphere is the final level in the atmosphere. It's range is eighty-
five to one hundred forty kilometers and also temperatures as high as four
hundred sixty kelvins.

Society has been widely addressed with the many problems that we are
having in our environment today. A major problem is that of CFCs. CFC
stands for Chlorofluorocarbons which are found in many of the aerosol spray
cans. In December of 1973, Rowland and Molina discovered that CFCs can
destroy the ozone in the stratosphere.

In June 1975, the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) sued the
Consumers Product Safety Commis...