What is Ozone depletion potential (ODP)?

Ozone depletion potential (ODP) is a way to measure how much harm certain chemicals do to the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful sunlight.

Imagine your skin is like Earth’s ozone layer, it helps keep you safe from too much sun. Now, think of some strong chemicals, like the ones in old aerosol sprays, as tiny little troublemakers that go up into the sky and start eating away at this protective layer. The more troublemakers there are, or the stronger they are, the faster they can cause damage.

ODP is like a score, it tells us how bad these chemicals are at damaging the ozone layer compared to one very famous troublemaker called CFC-11. If a chemical has an ODP of 1, that means it’s just as strong as CFC-11. A higher number means it's even worse, like having more troublemakers working together!

So scientists use this score to know which chemicals are the biggest threats and how much they need to reduce them to keep our ozone layer healthy.