History
In 1992, three scientists from Environment Canada developed the UV Index, and made Canada the first country in the world to broadcast forecasts of the predicted daily UV levels for the next day. Several other countries followed suit with their own UV indices, among them the United States in 1994. Until recently, the methods of calculating and reporting a UV Index varied from country to country. Today, a worldwide UV Index, standardized by the World Health Organization (WHO), has replaced the inconsistent regional methods. The international UV Index not only specifies a uniform calculation method but also standard colors and graphics for printed media. In the USA, the WHO index replaced the original US index in 2004. In 2005, the United States and Australia launched the UV Alert. While the two countries have different baseline UV intensity requirements before issuing an alert, the goal is to raise awareness of the dangers of overexposure to the sun on days with intense UV radiation.
Read more about this topic: Ultraviolet Index
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)