A Red Alert Over The Ozone

A few months ago, Eileen Claussen thought that the earth's protec tive ozone layer--and perhaps the globe's inhabitants--had been saved from a grim fate. After all, the Environmental Protection Agency's ozone chief reasoned, an international accord reached last summer would speed the elimination of chemicals that destroy the ozone shield and let excess deadly ultraviolet (UV) light reach the earth. And in the 1990 Clean Air Act, Congress committed the U. S. to start phasing out the chemicals, known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), even faster. "We thought we had done it," Clausen says.

But the champagne flowed too early. On Apr. 4, the EPA announced the results of a sobering new study. Measurements from a NASA satellite revealed that the fragile ozone layer has shrunk as much as 5% over the U. S. in the past 10 years, at least 50% more than previously estimated. Now, Clausen is searching for new ways to get rid of ozone-killers. "We're going to take another squeeze at what's left," she says.