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New Zealand’s Green Party calls for protecting the ozone layer

24/Sep/2006: With a 3000km ozone hole passing over New Zealand today, the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand has urged for reducing the usage of bromomethane, commonly known as methyl bromide.

This organic halogen compound is commercially used as a ‘fumigate’ to control pests in timber exports. This compound is known to cause depletion of ozone layer and it is banned under the ‘Montreal Protocol’. Even small amounts of bromomethane can cause considerable damage to the ozone layer, as bromine is more destructive that chlorine.

Green party is a political party in the New Zealand Parliament, which focuses mainly on environment, non-violence and participatory democracy. The party’s co-leader Dr. Russel Norman said that the use of methyl bromide in New Zealand has increased by over 50% during the period 1996 to 2004. The consumption of methyl bromide in New Zealand has increased from 160 tons in 1996 to 243 tons in 2004.

He wondered why there is no reduction in the usage of methyl bromide in a period when the world is suffering from high UV levels, as a result of the depletion of ozone layer.

Dr. Norman added that the New Zealand government is issuing more and more exemptions for the usage of methyl bromide, instead of finding an alternative to it. He said that the government should speed up its effort to find an alterative to methyl bromide and if they fail to do so it would have serious consequences on the recovery of the ozone hole – a recovery in which the Green party has a strong vested interest.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) warned that the UV levels would increase by 20% when the ozone hole passes over New Zealand. Exposure to high levels of ultraviolet radiations can cause skin cancer in humans.

A.K.Siva

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