• Vanishing Ozone—Are We Destroying Our Own Shield?
    Awake!—1989 | January 22

    • In 1974 scientists began to suspect that CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, are ozone-destroying gases. Yet, these CFCs are everywhere. They are used to make all kinds of foamed plastic products, from insulation to cups and fast-food containers. They are used as propellants in spray cans, as coolants in air conditioners and refrigerators, and as solvents to clean electronic equipment.

      Recalled one scientist who reported the danger: “There was no moment when I yelled ‘Eureka!’ I just came home one night and told my wife, ‘The work is going very well, but it looks like the end of the world.’” But since the invention of CFCs in 1930, many have hailed them for being nontoxic and remarkably stable. Were they wrong?

      The Predicted Threat

      No. Apparently they were all too right. Precisely because they are so stable, CFCs persist in their destructiveness. After CFCs leak from their discarded air conditioners and crumpled plastic foam cups, they slowly drift up to the stratosphere. There, bombarded by ultraviolet rays, they break up at last, releasing a real ozone killer: chlorine. Its molecules dance a deadly minuet with the fragile ozone molecules, destroying them and spinning off intact to find another unfortunate partner. One chlorine molecule may dance on in this way for over a century, obliterating a hundred thousand ozone molecules.

      Alarmed scientists raised a hue and cry over the chief use of CFCs​—propellants for aerosol sprays. By 1978 Canada, Sweden, and the United States had banned the use of CFCs in aerosols, but few other countries followed suit. What was worse, more uses were found for the hardy chemicals, so their production continued to soar. The United States still consumes one fourth of the world’s annual supply.