SASKATOON — With holes in the ozone layer and higher levels of ultraviolet radiation seeping through the atmosphere, Environment Canada is warning people to be careful.
This fixation with the suns’ rays led to the installation of a Brewer spectrophotometer at Rouleau, Sask., south of Regina. The spectrophotometer is a $100,000 instrument that measures the thickness of the ozone layer and determines what the ultraviolet index will be over southern Saskatchewan.
The index is a measurement of the sun’s intensity. It’s the summer equivalent of windchill factor, said Fraser Hunter of Environment Canada.
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“We’re very concerned that increased ultraviolet rays would alter the growth pattern of crops. If we didn’t have the ozone layer up there we couldn’t grow a crop, it would just fry in a matter of minutes.”
In recent years there’s been a higher incidence of cattle with cataracts, Fraser said.
Two professors from the University of Saskatchewan dispute the dangers.
Otto Radostits, professor of large animal medicine, said his profession doesn’t recognize a link between cataracts and ultraviolet radiation.
“The major effect of ultraviolet rays on cattle is to precipitate cancer eye and pink eye.”
Both of these eye-related diseases are linked to ultraviolet rays, but Radostits said there’s no evidence the occurrence has increased.
“We don’t keep track of the exact incidence like we do in man.”
UV alarm unfounded
Graham Simpson, professor of plant physiology, said although research is in its infancy, as far as he can tell there’s not a lot of evidence to support the theory that plant growth will be affected by higher levels of ultraviolet light, at least not in the short-term.
There’s a lot of alarmism about ultraviolet light, but plants have been growing for billions of years through various levels of UV rays, Simpson said.
There are far more pressing factors affecting crop growth, like floods, high winds and drought, he said.
“Let’s not look for another disaster for our crops.”
