New Arctic Ozone Threat

Everybody knows about the ozone hole above the South Pole. But now the North Pole could also be exposed. Never before has the ozone layer above the Arctic been so thin.
The spring of 2011 was exceptional, unfortunately not in a positive sense. Earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes inflicted enormous losses and hardship around the globe.

As if that was not enough, another danger which we’d thought was consigned to history, made a comeback.

"We have seen the greatest loss of ozone in the northern hemisphere on record,” warns Markus Rex, a physicist for the Alfred Wegener Institute and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany.

During late April climate experts warned that an air mass very low in protective ozone could drift from the Arctic as far south as Central Europe or New York, thereby increasing the risk of skin-cancer.

Even though this low-ozone air had only reached northern parts of Russia by early May, it was amazing how long it had persisted, said Rex, who added that we could see the first Arctic ozone hole by the end of the spring.

http://knowledge.allianz.com/?1483/arctic-ozone-hole-threat