Press Release: Record cold winter may increase ozone hole over North Europe

European scientists confirmed that Arctic high atmosphere was reaching the lowest ever temperatures in the winter of 2004/05, warning that destruction of the protective ozone layer was substantially increased under very cold conditions. First signs of ozone loss were already detected. The ozone layer is located in the so called stratosphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, at an altitude of about 8 km in the Poles, and its function is to protect the earth's surface from harmful solar UV radiation. More than 170 countries have ratified the Montreal Protocol, an environmental treaty established in 1987 to protect the ozone layer. Should further cooling of the Arctic stratosphere occur, increasing ozone losses were likely to be expected for the next couple of decades. A hole in the ozone layer can lead to intensified UV harmful radiation affecting inhabited Polar regions and Scandinavia, possibly down to central Europe. This could have consequences for human health (increased cases of skin cancer) as well as for biodiversity.