1. Ozone is a highly reactive gas found in the stratospheric atmosphere that protects life on earth from ultraviolet rays however it can be harmful in concentrated quantities near the surface of the earth as it is produced when air pollutants react in sunlight.
2. Ozone molecules in the stratosphere are constantly being produced and destroyed by different types of UV radiation from the sun. Normally, the production and destruction is balanced or stable at any given time.
3. Ozone-depleting substances (ODS), includes chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and methyl bromide, halons, and methyl chloroform.
4. Ozone depletion is the annual ozone "hole" over Antarctica that has occurred during the Antarctic spring since the early 1980s. This is not really a hole through the ozone layer, but rather a large area of the stratosphere with extremely low amounts of ozone.
5. ODSs and non-ozone depleting substitutes are potent greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Some ODSs and substitutes have global warming potentials that are several thousand times greater than that of carbon dioxide.
6. World Ozone Day, September 16, 2020 celebrates 35 years of the Vienna Convention to Protect the Ozone Layer and its Montreal Protocol, which united the world to cut out gases creating a hole in the ozone layer.
7. Ozone was discovered by Christian Fredrich Schonbein in 1840 and named after the Greek for ‘to smell’ which is ‘ozein’.
Based on: https://www.epa.gov/ozone-layer-protection/frequently-asked-questions-about-ozone-layer
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