As of , there is no safe, effective alternative. The industry must follow certain safety measures to dispose of the this dangerous chemical responsibly and to recycle the material when possible.
Aerosol cans and propellant liquids used gasses containing CFCs for a long time. They were phased out of aerosol production in in favor of less harmful hydrocarbon alternatives. However, since CFC molecules have a lifetime of 20 to years in the stratosphere, the damage done in previous decades continues to make an impact.
As refrigerants and aerosol cans containing CFCs become older and more obsolete, people tend to forget about them, leaving them to leak and further contaminate the atmosphere. They collect air from the stratosphere and use mass spectrometers to determine the chemical makeup of CFC contamination. Tommy Doc is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and an aspiring Internet entrepreneur. He was the sports editor for "The Pennsylvania Independent" while attaining his bachelor's degree in communications and environmental science.
Doc is from Atlantic City, N. During the late s and early s the CFCs made possible an inexpensive solution to the desire for air conditioning in many automobiles, homes, and office buildings. Later, the growth in CFC use took off worldwide with peak, annual sales of about a billion dollars U. Whereas CFCs are safe to use in most applications and are inert in the lower atmosphere, they do undergo significant reaction in the upper atmosphere or stratosphere.
In , two University of California chemists, Professor F. Sherwood Rowland and Dr. Mario Molina, showed that the CFCs could be a major source of inorganic chlorine in the stratosphere following their photolytic decomposition by UV radiation. In addition, some of the released chlorine would become active in destroying ozone in the stratosphere 2.
Ozone is a trace gas located primarily in the stratosphere see ozone. Ozone absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation in the wavelengths between and nm of the UV-B band which can cause biological damage in plants and animals. A loss of stratospheric ozone results in more harmful UV-B radiation reaching the Earth's surface. Chlorine released from CFCs destroys ozone in catalytic reactions where , molecules of ozone can be destroyed per chlorine atom.
A large springtime depletion of stratospheric ozone was getting worse each following year. This ozone loss was described in by British researcher Joe Farman and his colleagues 3. The ozone hole was different than ozone loss in the midlatitudes.
Ozone loss also is enhanced in polar regions as a result of reactions involving polar stratospheric clouds PSCs 5 and in midlatitudes following volcanic eruptions. The need for controlling the CFCs became urgent. This international agreement included restrictions on production of CFC, , , , , and the Halons chemicals used as a fire extinguishing agents. An amendment approved in London in was more forceful and called for the elimination of production by the year The environmental concern for CFCs follows from their long atmospheric lifetime 55 years for CFC and years for CFC, CCl 2 F 2 9 which limits our ability to reduce their abundance in the atmosphere and associated future ozone loss.
This resulted in the Copenhagen Amendment that further limited production and was approved later in The manufacture of these chemicals ended for the most part on January 1, The only exceptions approved were for production within developing countries and for some exempted applications in medicine i.
The Montreal Protocol included enforcement provisions by applying economic and trade penalties should a signatory country trade or produce these banned chemicals. A total of signatory countries have now signed the Montreal Protocol. Atmospheric measurements CFC and CFC reported in showed that their growth rates were decreasing as result of both voluntary and mandated reductions in emissions 9. Many CFCs and selected chlorinated solvents have either leveled off Figure 1 or decreased in concentration by 9, The demand for the CFCs was accomodated by recycling, and reuse of existing stocks of CFCs and by the use of substitutes.
Some applications, for example degreasing of metals and cleaning solvents for circuit boards, that once used CFCs now use halocarbon-free fluids, water sometimes as steam , and diluted citric acids. The HCFCs include hydrogen atoms in addition to chlorine, fluorine, and carbon atoms. The advantage of using HCFCs is that the hydrogen reacts with tropospheric hydroxyl OH , resulting in a shorter atmospheric lifetime.
HCFC CHClF 2 has an atmospheric lifetime of about 13 years 11 and has been used in low-demand home air-conditioning and some refrigeration applications since However, HCFCs still contain chlorine which makes it possible for them to destroy ozone. The Copenhagen amendment calls for their production to be eliminated by the year The HFCs are considered one of the best substitutes for reducing stratospheric ozone loss because of their short lifetime and lack of chlorine.
During this period the login to the website will be restricted. Login Name. Forgot your password? You are here: Data and maps Indicators Production and consumption of ozone Production and consumption of Indicator Assessment Production and consumption of ozone depleting substances This website has limited functionality with javascript off.
Please make sure javascript is enabled in your browser. Also known as: CLIM This is an old version , kept for reference only. Go to latest version. Topics: Climate change mitigation Industry. Consumption of ozone depleting substances EU , Maximum ozone-hole area in Production of ozone depleting substances in EU, Supporting information Indicator definition This indicator quantifies the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances ODS in Europe.
Rationale Justification for indicator selection Since the mid s various policy measures have been introduced to limit or phase-out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances ODS in order to protect the stratospheric ozone layer from depletion.
Policy context and targets Context description Following agreement of the Vienna convention and the Montreal protocol and its subsequent amendments and adjustments, policy measures have been taken to limit or phase-out production and consumption of ozone depleting substances in order to protect the stratospheric ozone layer against depletion.
Montreal protocol EEA member ountries article 5 1 Cyprus, Malta, Romania and Turkey non-article 5 1 all other EEA member countries Summary of phase-out schedule for non-article 5 1 countries, including Beijing adjustments. Methodology Methodology for indicator calculation The indicator presents production and consumption in units of tonnes of ODS, which is the amount of ODS produced or consumed, multiplied by their respective ozone depleting potential value.
Feedstock Production is only for internal use Quarantine Production is both for internal use and for export Methodology for gap filling No gap filling takes place. Uncertainties Methodology uncertainty Data sets uncertainty Rationale uncertainty Policies focuses on the production and consumption of ODS rather than emissions. Other info. Indicator codes CLIM Frequency of updates Updates are scheduled once per year.
EEA Contact Info info eea. Permalinks Permalink to this version cdb9bfddfec6e Permalink to latest version INDen. Older versions 16 Jan - Production and consumption of ozone depleting substances. Temporal coverage Dates First draft created:. Topics Topics: Climate change mitigation Industry. Tags Filed under: ozone soer csi air. Filed under: ozone , soer , csi , air.
Document Actions Share with others. Follow us Sign up to receive our news notifications and our quarterly e-newsletter. Contact us Kongens Nytorv 6 Copenhagen K. Ask your question Media enquiries. Base level: year not specified. Biodiversity Information System for Europe. Climate Adaptation Platform. Copernicus In Situ. Copernicus in situ component.
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