PUNTA ARENAS (Chile) —Here, at South America’s gateway to Antarctica, television weather forecasters read the daily updates on the ozone hole just like temperatures and cloud conditions.

High-school students have made a "Solar Stoplight" to warn about el agujero — Spanish for "the hole".

And the local oil refinery doles out sunglasses and sun lotion to workers whenever the hole is directly overhead.

For two days last week, Punta Arenas went on "red alert" as the ozone hole drifted over South America’s remote southern tip.

But years after the discovery of the ozone hole —which has swelled to a record 29 million sq km — the people at Land’s End are learning to cope with the harmful rays it lets through the atmosphere.

For several days each year between Sept 1 and Dec 31, when Antarctica’s ozone hole is at its largest, residents are forced to don sombreros, sunglasses, sunblock lotions and extra clothing.

With a population of 120,000, Punta Arenas is the only populous region on Earth exposed to the ozone hole, a kind of trap door through the atmosphere for the sun’s cancer-causing ultra-violet B rays.

The ozone layer acts as a sunscreen, filtering out many of the damaging rays.

"The ozone hole is ,passing over us right now, said Mr Claudio Casiccia, a space geophysicist who runs the Ozone and Radiation Laboratory at the Universidad de Magallanes.

He climbs a ladder to the laboratory rooftop to look through its eve on the sky —a spectro-radiometer, which measures ozone levels.

Ozone levels are far lower here than in much of the rest of the world, less than 200 Dobson units on the scientific scale of measurement. Normal readings are 400. 

Ozone depletion begins in July as sunlight triggers chemical reactions in polar air during the Antarctic winter, then continues for months before tapering off as temperature begin rising in late November.

Chlorine compounds used in refrigerators, aerosol sprays and solvents are blamed for most ozone depletion.

But experts agree man-made chemicals are levelling off, due to the 1989 Montreal Protocol, which commits countries to eliminating production and use of ozone-depleting substances.

In Punta Arenas, public-health official Lidia Ainarales stood on a street corner and squinted into the afternoon sun while facing local TV cameras with her daily ozone update.

"Tomorrow we have declared a red alert. Please take all precautions," she said, advising people to slather on sun lotion and keep out of direct sunlight.

"What does a red alert mean? It means anyone with fair skin should not expose himself directly to sunlight for more than five minutes at peak hours and no more than 20 minutes for those with darker complexions," she cautioned.

"In other climates I might be wearing short sleeves, hut not here,’ she added, buttoned to the neck in a long-sleeved dress.

‘We need to learn to protect ourselves from the sun on these days."

Even students are helping raise awareness.

The "Solar Stoplight" they built works like a clock, with hands pointing to green for normal days and red for maximum alerts.

Officials want to put .similar devices in shops and the nearby duty-free zone.

Still, many disregard the warnings.

Sunburn is only detected once it has occurred and the chilly temperatures much of the year are deceiving.

"The ozone hole? I never worry about sunburn," said Mr Manuel 1.emus, 29, a crab fisherman who spent a "red alert" day storing traps aboard his boat.

"Sometimes you burn, but you get used to it." 

Source : The Straits Times, Oct 20, 2000

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