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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1, JULY 1988

NEWS...
THE SEARCH FOR CFC SUBSTITUTES

Item #d88jul10

Responding to the passage last September of the Montreal Protocol to restrict the use and production of CFCs, chlorofluorocarbon producers have launched an intense search for more acceptable alternatives. Shortly after the United States Senate ratification of the Protocol and the release of the Ozone Trends Panel report in March, E.I. DuPont de Nemours, one of the world's largest CFC producers, called for a total phase-out of fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons; some other large manufacturers now support drastic reductions also. In April the Food Packaging Institute announced a voluntary termination of the use of CFCs in their disposable foam products. Thirteen international CFC producers have set up a multimillion-dollar cooperative program of inhalation toxicity tests, in an unprecedented collaboration to develop substitutes within the time frame required by the Protocol. Allied-Signal, another large U.S. firm, will cooperate with Atochem of France to find substitutes. The following articles deal primarily with the effects of a phase-out on CFC users and the search for alternatives.

Item #d88jul11

"Search Intensifies for Alternatives to Ozone-Depleting Halocarbons," P.S. Zurer, Chemical and Engineering News, Feb. 8, 1988, pp. 17-20. Discusses the eight specific halocarbons to be controlled if the Protocol is ratified, and the substitutes being considered. A recently developed biodegradable cleaning agent may replace CFC-113, used extensively by the electronics industry. Manufacturers of rigid foam will be severely affected, and halon fire extinguishers pose a problem since there are no known substitutes.

Item #d88jul12

"A Down-to Earth Job: Saving the Sky," S. Gannes, Fortune, March 14, 1988, pp. 133, 136, 141.

Item #d88jul13

"Du Pont Backs 'Orderly Transition' to Total Phase-Out of Halogenated CFCs," BNA Environment Reporter, April 1, 1988, pp. 2388-2389. Includes comments of officials from Du Pont and other firms.

Item #d88jul14

"Decline of the CFC Empire," Science News, April 9, 1988, pp. 234-236.

Item #d88jul15

"Industry Announces End to Food Packaging Made with Chlorofluorocarbons by Year's End," BNA Environment Reporter, April 15, 1988, pp. 2454-2455.

Item #d88jul16

"Air Conditioners That Won't Monkey with the Ozone Layer," Business Week -- Industrial Edition, April 25, 1988, p. 31. Describes new refrigeration technology based on nickel alloys, including a fuel-saving version for automobiles powered by waste engine heat.

Item #d88jul17

"Trouble with Bubbles," T. Pearce, New Scientist, May 12, 1988, pp. 72-73. On the use of CFCs in the production of plastic foams, and disadvantages posed by certain substitutes.

Item #d88jul18

"Can Chemists Save the World from Chemists?" G. Freiherr, The Scientist, May 16, 1988, pp. 1, 8. Focuses on innovative approaches being pursued by some of the smaller firms.

Item #d88jul19

"In Search of the Safe CFCs," M. Jones, New Scientist, May 26, 1988, 56-60. Describes how scientific evidence and public opinion are forcing chemical companies to find substitutes, which could be available now if industry had followed up on research initiated in the 1970s. The Bureau of European Consumer Unions has threatened a boycott throughout Europe if a certain phase-out schedule is not met by industries; discusses the economic repercussions of such a drastic move.