MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ozone Committee September active.

Public opinion polls and focus groups among different locations of Magallanes Region residents will be carried out during the coming six months with the purpose of determining community perception of the thinning of the ozone layer and the increase of UV radiation that begins every year in September in southern Chile.

The Ozone Committee as it's identified in Punta Arenas, held their first spring meeting of 2003 last week in the Antarctic Department of Magallanes University with the participation of government officials, representatives from the private sector, academia and scientists.

"The main purpose is to measure the feedback of the massive UVR awareness campaign we are constantly launching to alert the population on the dangers and effects of exposure. We call it "photo-protection" and this year we want to scientifically measure "population perception" and if there is an effective cultural change involving the whole ozone layer issue", indicated Lidia Amarales regional Public Health Secretary.

"We want to make sure the message gets through; last year was relatively calm and we were satisfied with the results, but 2003/2004 apparently will be a complicated year with a far greater potential exposure", added Ms. Amarales.

"The accumulation of stratospheric clouds in winter over Antarctica gives an idea of what can happen in spring and this time it looks as if we are going to have a similar situation to 2000, when there was a record hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica", said geophysics Claudio Casiccia head of the Ozone and UV radiation monitoring Laboratory in the Magallanes University.

"We anticipate an average less than 100 Dobson units (radiation measure) over the Antarctic in the coming weeks, but how this will influence the South American continent, particularly Magallanes, and if the ozone hole will reach Punta Arenas, it's too early to determine", indicated Prof. Casiccia.

However, Prof. Casiccia said the community should be alert to the UV forecasts that will be regularly released through the mass media.

"In Magallanes Region we know this risk is concentrated in several days of this coming spring and during that time we all will have to comply with the recommendations and precautions from the Public Health authorities".