80s hair did not create a hole in the ozone layer. Photo / Supplied
80s hair did not create a hole in the ozone layer
Sure, hair was big in the 80s, ably supported by Toni home perms and copious amounts of teasing and hairspray. In 1985, this high-hair fashion seemed to have brought the world to the brink of destruction. Scientist Joseph Farman
declared that the atmospheric ozone over Antarctica had been reduced by around 40 per cent. Ozone, or trioxygen, is a gas that protects us from the sun’s potent UV rays. It’s nature’s sunscreen. But the level of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, a type of chemical that had been commonly used in hairspray, air conditioners and refrigerators, had risen so much it was damaging the ozone layer. But even though that theory was confirmed in the 1980s, it had actually been developed in the 1970s. It was in that decade that manufacturers voluntarily stopped using CFCs, except in the case of certain medical applications like inhalers. So those super-high hairdos in the 80s did not actively contribute to the hole in the ozone layer. (via Mental Floss)
Better safe than sorry
A reader writes: “My grandad, in his 80s and fit and healthy, suddenly started having chest pains. He was admitted but all tests showed nothing. Finally, he mentioned to my uncle that it might be after he’d realised some stacked-up wood had fallen in front of the garage door (on the inside) and so he had to ‘shimmy in’ through the small garage window to sort it. He was diagnosed with a pulled muscle in his chest and discharged.”
Born to report the weather
