International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer falls on Sept. 16:

'Sri Lanka, Ozone-Friendly' - Dr. W.L. Sumathipala

"We have done many awareness campaigns to make industrialists, companies and even the BOI understand the importance of being ozone-friendly", said Director of the National Ozone Unit (NOU) of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Dr. W.L. Sumathipala. In operation for nearly 10 years, the NOU has been a fitting example of how simple awareness campaigns can mean the big difference between life and death. Chemicals that are released into the air can harm the ozone layer which is also cancer-causing for human beings.

"At the moment, our ozone layer is thinning but there are positive and negative aspects of these," said the director. He highlighted, "As we're a tropical country close to the equator, we get direct sunlight almost all the time which can be sometimes harmful due to radiation. In a positive sense, as we don't have seasons to change our weather, we have adapted to this pattern and the climate change itself is slow varying to 0.1% lesser than the normal ozone percentage".

The director went on to explain: "Likewise, the population and the biodiversity in Sri Lanka have adapted in ways like having a dark skin colour to tackle harmful UV rays".

Dr. Sumithapala also spoke about the success of the Montreal Protocol which is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of a number of substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion.

"It is one of the most successful treaties worldwide and now the need has come to accelerate the goals of it", he said.

As International Ozone Day falls on the 16th of September, the NOU has done immense educational programs in the schools to generate ozone concern among the children. "It is the children who are our true messengers in society because if we give them a good education, then they will be responsible citizens.

Dr. Sumithapala said that once when he went to a rural village, a shopkeeper was unhappy about what he had told the schoolchildren. "When I asked him why, the shopkeeper said that I had been telling students that old refrigerators are bad as they emit harmful cancer-causing CFC (Chloro-Fluoro-Carbon gas) which shouldn't be sold.

He said that he wanted to sell them cheaply (as he imported it for virtually free of charge) to the children's parents but they firmly insisted that they shouldn't buy it. I told him that we shouldn't be greedy for money because we all will suffer the consequences". The director said that developing countries even pay money to those from the developing countries to sell to their disposable waste which are actually banned products that emit toxic CFC and HCFC (Hydro-Chloro-Fluoro-Carbon gas). These greedy countries, never realizing the consequences of a freebie, put their lives and the lives of others at risk for accepting such harmful gifts.

Chemicals that are worse than CFC and HCFCs are Methyl Bromide that is even used in Sri Lankan garment factories as cleaning and bleaching agents for clothes. Another chemical is Haloalkane which is a chemical used in fire-fighting which is also dangerous. "Methyl Bromide is used legally for pre-shipment treatment and fumigation methods because an effective replacement hasn't been found yet", he said.

"Sri Lanka is far ahead than many nations when it came to respecting the aims of the Montreal Protocol since we are party to that", said the director.

Today, Dr. Sumithapala has done effective strategies to convert companies and industries to adhere to ozone-friendly policies. "It is now safe to say that Sri Lanka is an ozone-friendly nation because we have converted nearly all companies manufacturing everything from perfumes to air-conditioners to omit their toxic gas emissions", he said.

This year's National Ozone Day commemoration will be held at the Public Library Auditorium under the theme of 'Universal Participation: Ozone Protection unifies the World'. The NOU are committed to giving people especially school children the best knowledge about how they can protect and respect the ozone layer.

Outgoing Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona who will take his appointment as Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN, said that he was once offered the Executive Director's position in the Ozone Secretariat during his tenure as the Chief of the UN Treaty Section but he wanted to serve his country. "The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone layer (1985) was one of the successful treaties in the UN with mutual understanding between the developed and developing countries working together", he said.

In fact, during the early 1990s, even with the Vienna Convention, it was noticed that there was a hole above the Artic which caused skin cancer to those in Australia. "So they enforced three components in which developed countries gave aid to developing countries to upgrade their technology to prevent the toxic gases from destroying the ozone layer and this was deemed successful", he said.

Sri Lanka is one of the countries who have the best ozone layer and the world has recognised that with the election of Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka to the Chair of the Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention some time back.

"The Vienna Convention has also been successful because countries like India and China have also agreed to it", said Dr. Kohona.

In conclusion, we can say that Sri Lanka should be blessed to have a good ozone layer above and should preserve and maintain it.