GATINEAU, Quebec (UPI) -- International scientists say they're worried Environment Canada apparently plans to shut down two programs considered vital to measuring the ozone layer. 

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reports cutbacks in the governmental environment department apparently would discontinue a network of 17 ozone-monitoring stations across the country that take balloon measurements of the atmosphere.

Also apparently slated to be shut down is the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Center, an international database of archived ozone data from throughout the world.

The CBC notes the 1987 Montreal Protocol -- designed to stop man-made chemicals from depleting the ozone layer, increasing the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and immune system damage -- requires participating countries to monitor the ozone layer's recovery and issue an assessment every four years.

The two Environment Canada programs "play a very important role within the monitoring of the ozone layer," said Johannes Strahelin, a Swiss researcher who chairs the World Meteorological Organization's ozone science advisory group.

In the spring, monitoring revealed a record ozone hole over the arctic, in part because of climate change, and the World Meteorological Association warned it could increase exposure to ultraviolet radiation in the Northern Hemisphere, the CBC reported.

The network said the Canadian cutbacks drew international attention when they appeared this week in the journal Nature.

On Friday, Environment Canada spokeswoman Melissa Lantsman said in an e-mail "nothing has been 'cut,'" and "we are optimizing and streamlining the way we monitor and measure ozone."