The emission of halon causes ozone depletion. Skin cancer is now the most common and most rapidly increasing form of cancer in the United States. One in five Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime. It is a silent epidemic. All populations are affected.
Cataracts account for at least half of the cases of blindness in the world.
Ozone depletion also contributes to severe damage of the cornea, lens and retina of the human eye. This is critical for the cellular immune system, which normally recognizes a cancer cell or a parasitic cell and mounts an attack on it. Suppression of the immune system is an especially large risk to people with already impaired responses to infections, including people with AIDS and the very young or old, increasing the likelihood that these infections will be more deadly. There are numerous other threats to the very nature of how we live. UV-B radiation can diminish our food supply because it damages plants.