
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 13, 1992                   TAG: 9203130530
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A CHILEAN LAB

SCIENTISTS have long known what could happen if ultraviolet rays from space bombarded life forms on Earth. They warned during the 1970s of the danger from breakdown of the ozone layer, caused by reaction of manmade chemicals - chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs - with oxygen in the upper atmosphere.

Signs of that breakdown began appearing a few years ago as a gap in the ozone layer over the Antarctic. All this was disturbing enough for several nations to sign a treaty calling for a 50 percent cut in global CFC production by 2000.

The matter became urgent for the United States early this year. Space scientists - using data from a converted spy plane and a satellite - said an ozone hole appeared to be opening, not over desolate Antarctica, but over the densely populated Northern Hemisphere. A week later, President Bush ordered a halt to almost all CFC production in the United States by the end of 1995, and appealed to other nations to follow suit.

How imminent is the threat to this hemisphere will be clearer by the end of March, when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to have more data. Meantime, some disturbing anecdotal information is emerging from Punta Arenas, a community of about 110,000 people on the southern tip of Chile. People there tell of blind rabbits, of sheep that develop temporary cataracts on their eyes, of humans with difficulty seeing and with burning pain in their skin, of plants turning yellow during growing season.

Such developments would be consistent with what is known about ultraviolet rays' potential effects: skin cancers, nerve damage, cataracts. There are worse, less visible effects, such as destruction of proteins and distortion of DNA's genetic messages. One survey has documented a drop in productivity of phytoplankton in waters of the Bellinghausen Sea exposed to ultraviolet rays; this has implications for the aquatic food chain.

Holes in the ozone, holes in the data. Chilean scientists have made incomplete and inconclusive observations of the phenomena around Punta Arenas. But they lack resources and funding from their government to flesh out the information.

Not only as a matter of justice, but in their own self-interest, other nations should help fund and organize extensive scientific studies. Punta Arenas has become like a laboratory filled with guinea pigs both human and animal. We need to document just what's going on there.

by CNB