19th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol
There were over 190 nations at the 19th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer. The big news this year were the reports of increased skin cancer rates.
Today, more than one million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year and more than 10,000 people will die as a result in the United States alone. That’s nearly 90 percent more skin cancer than in the 1960s. Medical costs for treatment for non-fatal form of skin cancer in the U.S. is more than a half billion dollars a year.
Most experts agree that skin cancer rates will continue to climb because the ozone layer will remain crippled for decades by past and current emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons, chemicals used as refrigerants, aerosol propellents, solvents, and foam blowing agents. In fact, because skin cancer can takes years to manifest, we will continue to see growth in this disease for years to come.
Developed countries phased out production of CFCs by 1996, and developing countries have until 2010. Industry had denied their products were the cause of the measurable ozone depletion until 1980, and then they argued that the cost of replacing these products was too costly. How often we hear this lament, and not only in the environmental arena.
HCFC’s (which have replaced CFCs) also destroy ozone, but at about five percent the rate of CFCs.