What happened to the hole in the ozone layer? What is the status of the hole?
The 1985 discovery by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey identified a dramatic thinning of the ozone layer over our southernmost continent, triggering immediate global concern about potential harm to human health and ecosystems worldwide.
Located in the stratosphere, the ozone layer acts like sunscreen, blocking potentially harmful ultraviolet energy from reaching our planet's surface. Without it, humans and animals could experience increased rates of skin cancer, DNA damage, cataracts and other ailments. It also affects the physiological and developmental processes of plants.
Scientists determined the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were widely used in refrigeration, aerosols, solvents, and fire extinguishers caused the problem.
When chlorine and bromine atoms from CFCs rise and come into contact with ozone in the stratosphere, they destroy ozone molecules, the Environmental Protection Agency says in an online report. Ozone can be destroyed more quickly than it is naturally created, the EPA said.
A large and deep ozone hole still forms every Antarctic spring, being deepest and largest toward the end of September, Shanklin told USA TODAY in a May 15 e-mail. "There is a very slow recovery, but we'll still have ozone holes for another 50 years or more."
Indeed, though the Antarctic ozone hole shows signs of recovery, the healing process is very slow. CFCs have atmospheric lifetimes of more than 50 years, so even without further emissions, a full recovery might not occur until after 2070, the BAS said.
"The current rate of recovery is a bit slower than might be expected, so there could be feedbacks with climate change taking place," Jon Shanklin, now an emeritus fellow at the British Antarctic Survey, told USA TODAY.
The discovery of the ozone hole led directly to the Montreal Protocol just two years later – an agreement that froze the production and use of ozone-depleting substances at 1986 levels and set the groundwork for phasing them out entirely.
Today, the protocol stands as one of the most successful international environmental treaties ever implemented. By preventing harmful UV radiation from reaching the Earth's surface, the agreement has saved thousands of lives, the BAS said.
"The Montreal Protocol is a very successful treaty that all the world's governments have signed. It is working, with the amount of ozone depleting chemicals in the atmosphere declining as expected," Shanklin said in an e-mail to USA TODAY.
USA TODAY asked Shanklin if there is a regret that we haven't made similar progress in reducing the human-caused greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
"Very much so," Shanklin answered. "The Montreal Protocol shows what can be done, but with most other environmental issues (climate, biodiversity loss, sewage pollution, soil degradation, etc.) there is mostly talk and small-scale action."
"It is largely because the economic model is flawed and perverse – it assumes that resources are infinite and that there is no cost in using them," Shanklin said. "This perversely then creates all the crises that we could be avoiding."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 40 years later: What happened to the hole in the ozone layer?
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Los Angeles Times
8 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
States brace for reversal of Obamacare coverage gains under Trump's budget bill
Shorter enrollment periods. More paperwork. Higher premiums. The sweeping tax and spending bill pushed by President Trump includes provisions that would not only reshape people's experience with the Affordable Care Act, but also sharply undermine the gains in health insurance coverage associated with it, according to some policy analysts. The moves affect consumers and have particular resonance for the 19 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that run their own ACA exchanges. Many of those states fear that the additional red tape — especially requirements that would end automatic reenrollment — would have an outsize impact on their policyholders. That's because a greater percentage of people in those states use those rollovers versus shopping around each year, which is more commonly done by people in states that use the federal marketplace. 'The federal marketplace always had a message of, 'Come back in and shop,' while the state-based markets, on average, have a message of, 'Hey, here's what you're going to have next year, here's what it will cost; if you like it, you don't have to do anything,'' said Ellen Montz, who oversaw the federal ACA marketplace under the Biden administration as deputy administrator and director at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. She is now a managing director with the Manatt Health consulting group. Millions — perhaps up to half of enrollees in some states — may lose or drop coverage as a result of that and other changes in the legislation combined with a new rule from the Trump administration and the likely expiration at year's end of enhanced premium subsidies put in place during the covid-19 pandemic. Without an extension of those subsidies, which have been an important driver of Obamacare enrollment in recent years, premiums are expected to rise 75% on average next year. That's starting to happen already, based on some early state rate requests for next year, which are hitting double digits. 'We estimate a minimum 30% enrollment loss, and, in the worst-case scenario, a 50% loss,' said Devon Trolley, executive director of Pennie, the ACA marketplace in Pennsylvania, which had 496,661 enrollees this year, a record. Drops of that magnitude nationally, coupled with the expected loss of Medicaid coverage for millions more people under the legislation Trump calls the 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' could undo inroads made in the nation's uninsured rate, which dropped by about half from the time most of the ACA's provisions went into effect in 2014, when it hovered around 14% to 15% of the population, to just over 8%, according to the most recent data. Premiums would rise along with the uninsured rate because older or sicker policyholders are more likely to try to jump enrollment hurdles, while those who rarely use coverage — and are thus less expensive — would not. After a dramatic all-night session, House Republicans passed the bill, meeting the president's July 4 deadline. Trump is expected to sign the measure on Independence Day. It would increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars and cut spending on a variety of programs, including Medicaid and nutrition assistance, to partly offset the cost of extending tax cuts put in place during the first Trump administration. The administration and its supporters say the GOP-backed changes to the ACA are needed to combat fraud. Democrats and ACA supporters see this effort as the latest in a long history of Republican efforts to weaken or repeal Obamacare. Among other things, the legislation would end several changes put in place by the Biden administration that were credited with making it easier to sign up, such as lengthening the annual open enrollment period and launching a special program for very low-income people that essentially allows them to sign up year-round. In addition, automatic reenrollment, used by more than 10 million people for 2025 ACA coverage, would end in the 2028 sign-up season. Instead, consumers would have to update their information, starting in August each year, before the close of open enrollment, which would end Dec. 15, a month earlier than currently. That's a key change to combat rising enrollment fraud, said Brian Blase, president of the conservative Paragon Health Institute, because it gets at what he calls the Biden era's 'lax verification requirements.' He blames automatic reenrollment, coupled with the availability of zero-premium plans for people with lower incomes that qualify them for large subsidies, for a sharp uptick in complaints from insurers, consumers, and brokers about fraudulent enrollments in 2023 and 2024. Those complaints centered on consumers' being enrolled in an ACA plan, or switched from one to another, without authorization, often by commission-seeking brokers. In testimony to Congress on June 25, Blase wrote that 'this simple step will close a massive loophole and significantly reduce improper enrollment and spending.' States that run their own marketplaces, however, saw few, if any, such problems, which were confined mainly to the 31 states using the federal The state-run marketplaces credit their additional security measures and tighter control over broker access than for the relative lack of problems. 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That would change under the tax and spending plan before Congress, ending presumptive eligibility while a person submits the information. A white paper written for Capital Policy Analytics, a Washington-based consultancy that specializes in economic analysis, concluded there appears to be little upside to the changes. While 'tighter verification can curb improper enrollments,' the additional paperwork, along with the expiration of higher premiums from the enhanced tax subsidies, 'would push four to six million eligible people out of Marketplace plans, trading limited fraud savings for a surge in uninsurance,' wrote free market economists Ike Brannon and Anthony LoSasso. 'Insurers would be left with a smaller, sicker risk pool and heightened pricing uncertainty, making further premium increases and selective market exits [by insurers] likely,' they wrote. Appleby writes for KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
USA Today
11 hours ago
- USA Today
A predictable day of 'horrific injuries': Doctors dread the Fourth of July
Data shows several Americans died from fireworks injuries and more than thousands were injured last year. USA TODAY Show Caption The Fourth of July is anything but celebratory in the Emergency Room. Every year, doctors amputate fingers and hands damaged by fireworks. They try to save eyes. And sometimes they have to deliver the worst news imaginable to loved ones. That's the warning – and the cold hard truth – from doctors who are bracing for another busy Independence Day. Dr. Nicolas Lee had already amputated the hands of two boys who lost them to firework injuries the week before Fourth of July. He expects to see many more in the coming week. "These are effectively bombs people are holding in their hands," said Lee, a professor of clinical orthopedic surgery at the University of California San Francisco who directs a hand reconstruction program. "We see hands and fingers blown off, groin injuries, facial burns and damage. I've had kids blow off their eyelids so they can't close their eyes." Even though fireworks are legal in much of the nation and sold widely, they are dangerous and deserve care and respect, said Dr. Jeffrey Goodloe. He's already seen burns, lacerations and hand injuries from people holding fireworks. "They're like military battle wounds," said Goodloe, an emergency room physician in Tulsa, Oklahoma who's also vice president for communication for the American College of Emergency Physicians. "These are horrific injuries. People just don't realize that even publicly available fireworks pack enough punch to rip a finger or a hand off." Last year, 11 Americans died from fireworks injuries and more than 14,700 were treated in emergency rooms, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In more than one-third of cases, the injuries were burns to the hands and fingers or head, face and ears. It's not just big rockets that hurt people. Last year, there were an estimated 1,700 emergency room injuries that only involved sparklers. One wrong move can change a person's life – and those people tend to be young. Almost a quarter of injuries are among people between 15- and 24-years-old and most are men. "I don't remember ever having a woman, it's always been young men," said Lee. 'We're going to see a lot of people who completely changed their lives because they made one simple, bad decision and now either they've lost a hand, they've lost their eyes, they've lost another appendage, or worse,' said Dr. Arvin Akhavan, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Washington. What are the most common firework injuries? The most common injury these doctors see is to the hands. "I've seen a number of people where the firework went off in their hand while they were holding it. Either they didn't have time to set it down or they were thinking they were going to aim it. But it blew up," said Goodloe. The hand literally blows apart, said Lee. The joints, bones, ligaments and skin are disrupted or destroyed by the blast. The most common digit to lose is the thumb. "That's 40% of your hand function," he said. "If it's really bad, the hand looks like a starfish. The fingers, the thumb, all the joints are dislocated and it just splays out," Lee said. "We try to save as many fingers as we can, we try to at least give you something to pinch with," he said. "But sometimes it requires amputation." There are also often facial burns, lacerations and injuries as people peer at fireworks. It's not uncommon for people to lose an eye. "I would love to show you actual photos of what happens, but it's too gruesome," said Chelsea Boe, a hand and microvascular surgeon at the University of Washington in Seattle. There are also groin injuries, if people are either sitting while they're lighting the device, or if they drop it and the blast radiates up towards them. Some injuries are to the solid organs in the core or to the head. "There are people who try to launch them off the top of their head or their chest," Lee said. For people setting off fireworks near shorelines or beaches, Lee has also seen injuries from sand that's cast up by the strength of the explosion. "The sand becomes thousands of little projectiles. It can get embedded in your skin, in your eyes, in your face. It's like getting a tattoo," he said. "It's hard to get out – you can't make that many micro incisions. So often you just have to leave it in." Fireworks safety tips The doctors who spend thousands of hours trying to save fingers, hands, eyes and other damage wish – fervently – that people would take a moment to think before they touch fireworks. "It's gunpowder with a fuse. They go off with unbelievable force and it goes right through the tissues," said Boe. "A lot of time, it's unsupervised kids. Or it's young men and boys who get together with their friends," she said. "They may or may not be drinking or using other substances. They may not be making the best decisions." Here's a few important tips: Never hold a lit firework in your hands Light fireworks one-at-a-time and then move back quickly Never try to re-light or pick up fireworks that have not gone off Never use fireworks when impaired by alcohol or drugs If you or someone is injured in an explosion, call 911 immediately The damage Lee sees in the operating room is awful – and unnecessary. "It's so devastating and these injuries are entirely preventable," he said. "I hope this (article) can help at least one person from suffering this way." Can fingers be re-attached? In the movies, a person might light a firecracker and blow off a finger cleanly. They stick it in a bucket of ice, race off to the hospital, and it all gets sewn back together. Reality is not so forgiving. "In very few cases, even with a very skilled hand surgeon, are you going to be able to reimplant a finger," said Goodloe. The injuries are rarely clean and neat and the amount of damage to the digit is considerable. "The reality is that when your finger gets blown off, you've permanently lost your finger," he said. When do firework injuries occur? While many injuries occur on the actual Fourth of July, the two weeks before the holiday and the two weeks after are very busy in emergency rooms, as people start to play with fireworks they've purchased or want to set off fireworks they had leftover from the holiday. "For hand surgeons, this is our holiday in the worst possible way," said Boe. It's even worse when the Fourth of July happens near a weekend, as it does this year, because people are more likely to make a weekend of it – and to party and drink. At the University of Washington, which is the main trauma unit for the Seattle region, they saw close to 50 people who required firework injury-related surgery in the four days after the Fourth. "We do a huge amount of preparation. We have extra teams available, extra operating rooms. We cancel elective surgeries, we try to have extra anesthesia teams available," she said. "It's almost like we're triaging for a mass casualty event."
USA Today
13 hours ago
- USA Today
Princess Kate says life after cancer is a 'roller coaster'
Princess Kate has revealed she had to put on a "brave face" throughout and following her cancer treatment last year, describing the ordeal as a "life-changing" experience. Kate, 43, shared publicly to the shock of many in March 2024 that she would undergo a course of chemotherapy after tests taken following major abdominal surgery revealed that an unspecified form of cancer had been present, weeks after her father-in-law, King Charles III, announced his own cancer diagnosis. She completed the course of treatment in September, the princess shared in a video posted to social media at the time. In January she announced her cancer was in remission after an appearance at the hospital where she was treated. "You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment. Treatment's done, then it's like, 'I can crack on, get back to normal,' but actually the phase afterwards is really, really difficult," Kate said during a visit to Colchester Hospital in Essex, southeast England, on Wednesday, July 2. Speaking to staff, patients and volunteers at the hospital, the princess emphasized the importance of support after treatment, noting that while patients may no longer be under clinical care, they often still struggle to "function normally at home" as they once did. "And actually, someone to help talk you through that, show you and guide you through that sort of phase that comes after treatment, I think is really valuable," she added, according to People. Princess Kate opens up about cancer experience at hospital where she got treatment Kate described the cancer diagnosis and treatment as "life-changing" for both patients and their loved ones. "You have to find your new normal and that takes time … And it's a roller coaster. It's not smooth, like you expect it to be," she said, according to the outlet. "But the reality is you go through hard times." The princess has been gradually resuming her public royal role but missed the Royal Ascot horse racing event in June, with husband Prince William attending the royal procession at the horse racing event in southern England solo. Contributing: Reuters; Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY
