UV effects overblown in Southern Cone?

Blind sheep and bug-eyed bunnies -- those were among the horrors described in Newsweek 4 years ago in an article on the effects of Antarctica's ozone hole and a resulting rise in UV exposure in Punta Arenas, the major city in southern Chile. News reports claimed not only that thousands of animals were getting cataracts and going blind, but that people were suffering from UV- related eye and skin diseases.

But a study by Oliver D. Schein of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and his colleagues reported in the April American Journal of Public Health contradicts these reports. Schein's team looked at records of Punta Arenas' dermatologists and ophthalmologists during October 1992, when atmospheric ozone reached record lows, and in normal months.

The researchers found no significant rise in acute UV-related skin and eye problems during the low-ozone period. What's more, veterinarians who examined 224 local sheep found that none was blind; many had a mild eye disease, but most cases appeared to be caused by an infection. Of 17 rabbits and hares examined, only one had cataracts.