PRAZONE

The Haryana Pollution Control Board on Monday sealed five industrial units located at Sonepat, Bahalgarh and Kharkhauda areas for violating pollution control norms. The board had also initiated action against three other industrial units on the same charge, a spokesman of the Board told media persons. The Board had issued show-cause notices to all such units directing them to install treatment plants for controlling pollution but the units failed to comply with the notices. Hence, the Board had no choice but to seal them, he said. Action against the units located at the G T road, Bahalgarh, was taken following a series of complaints made by Sports Authority of India, Bahalgarh, alleging that the air and water pollution was caused by smoke and discharge of affluents by the units. Article from THE TIMES OF INDIA, Calcutta . [ 15Sep 2008, ]

The ozone hole is larger in 2008 than the previous year but is not expected to reach the size seen two years ago, the World Meteorological Organisation said Tuesday. "In 2008, the ozone hole appeared relatively late. However, during the last couple of weeks it has grown rapidly and has now passed the maximum size attained in 2007," the WMO said in a statement. The hole in the layer over the Antarctic was discovered in the 1980s. It regularly tends to form in August, reaching its maximum size late September or early October before it fills again in mid-December. The size it reaches is dependent on weather conditions. Experts warned that such is the damage to the ozone layer, which shields the Earth from harmful ultra-violet rays, it will only attain full recovery in 2075. "It would take decades for the hole to disappear and for it to return to the situation before 1980. We are looking at 2075," Geir Braathen, who is the World Meteorological Organisation's expert