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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 5, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1992

NEWS...
CFC DEVELOPMENTS

Item #d92jan100

Three environmental groups have petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take emergency action to accelerate the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund and Friends of the Earth cited the recent bad news on ozone depletion in the latest report of the U.N. ozone panel (GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE DIGEST News, Dec. 1991) as evidence of the need for faster action. Presented at an international conference on CFC substitutes sponsored by EPA and industry in Baltimore last month, the petition specifies a complete halt in CFC production in 1995, five years earlier than required by both the Montreal Protocol and current U.S. policy. It calls for ceasing production of HCFCs, transition substitutes much less damaging to ozone, by 2005. A representative of EPA told the conference that her agency prefers multilateral action on speeding up the schedule, and that she expects this will happen at an April meeting of protocol parties. (See Chem. Eng. News, p. 5, Dec. 9, 1991; Intl. Environ. Rptr., pp. 674-675, Dec. 18. An industry group recently completed a briefing book on ozone protection policies--see Reports, this GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE DIGEST issue--Jan. 1992.)

In October, the European Community, Japan and the United States reached agreement with a consortium of firms that produce CFC substitutes on additional testing required to assess the safety of several hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The toxicity testing to be performed will augment the initial program set up by manufacturers, and will help establish recommended exposure levels for the chemicals depending on their use. (See J. Air Waste Mgmt. Assoc., p. 1622, Dec. 1991; Global Environ. Change Rep., p. 7, Oct. 18.)