
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 26, 1993                   TAG: 9308260107
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

OZONE-EATING CHEMICALS ON DECLINE

Worldwide emissions of the two worst ozone-destroying chemicals are slowing sooner than researchers had expected, and the gradual repair of Earth's battered ozone layer could begin by 2000, a study says.

A 1987 treaty banning the chemicals - and aggressive efforts by industry to find replacements - will lead to a decline in emissions of the two chlorofluorocarbons by the end of the decade, researchers predicted.

It will still be a century, however, before the ozone layer returns to normal, researchers said.

The study's principal author, James Elkins of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and his colleagues found that emissions of two chlorofluorocarbons - CFC-11 and CFC-12 - had slowed to a growth rate of about 1 percent per year, down from a peak of 5 percent per year in the 1980s, Elkins said.

The good news comes as NASA satellite data is indicating that the stratospheric ozone layer that shields the Earth from cancer-causing ultraviolet radiation has dropped to its lowest levels ever. - Associated Press

by CNB