U.S. Industry Responding to Pressure to Rid the Atmosphere of CFCs

General Motors is trying to stuff a bigger air conditioner into its cars, while American Telephone & Telegraph is revising decades-old assembly-line practices.

The changes come as industry, under pressure from government and environmentalists, seeks to eliminate the use of chlorofluorocarbons, the one-time wonder chemicals that have been destroying the Earth’s ozone layer.

But the task is more complicated than simply replacing an old chemical with a new one, government and industry experts say.

“The transition is going to take time. . . . We’re talking about retrofitting not one industry but several industries,” says F.A. (Tony) Vogelsberg, environmental manager for the Freon Division at Du Pont, a major producer of CFCs.

CFCs, discovered in 1928, help cool houses in the summer and keep them warm in the winter. They are used to make the foam cushions on couches, in pillows--even in stuffed toys.

Without them, refrigerators would not cool, and radios, televisions, stereos and home computers might not work as well.

The Dark Side

But CFCs also have a dark side: When they float 10 to 30 miles above the Earth to the stratosphere, their chlorine component eats away at the ozone shield that protects against the sun’s cancer-causing ultraviolet rays.

Industrial nations want to ban all CFC production within the next decade. But while half a dozen or more replacements are under study, they all have some drawbacks and no single substitute is expected to be found.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a substitute that is going to be given an A+” on all areas of concern, said Eileen Claussen, director of atmospheric and indoor air programs at the federal Environmental Protection Agency. “We’re going to have to make some trade-offs.”

The EPA is examining the array of substitutes, mainly a family of chemicals called HCFCs, to determine whether they are toxic or pose other health concerns and how significantly they harm the environment. The HCFCs also deplete ozone but much less severely.

“We clearly do not want to blunder along and create a new health or environmental problem while solving the ones that we targeted,” said Charles Elkins, whose EPA office is reviewing the potential toxicity of some CFC substitutes.

Every year more than 2 billion pounds of CFCs are produced worldwide, a third of them in the United States.

The United States banned used of the chemical in aerosol cans in 1978, four years after the first concerns about the ozone layer were raised. Still, the operation of more than $135 billion worth of equipment nationwide is dependent on CFCs.

Industry turned to CFCs because they do not burn or corrode metal, pose no direct health hazards to workers, and hold heat and cold, making them ideal insulators.

That was before their threat to the ozone layer was understood.

Half of the ozone over Antarctica was destroyed during September and October of 1987, causing a hole in the Earth’s protective shield that closes and reappears with the seasons. Severe destruction of the ozone layer is believed to be occurring over the South Pole again this year, according to scientists. They say the conditions for ozone destruction are present over the Arctic, although no massive loss of ozone has been observed there.

Firms Bite Bullet

Several large corporations have announced plans to end their reliance on CFCs, some by the early 1990s. These include such giants as AT&T;, IBM, Boeing and General Electric.

“We have used CFC solvents and cleaners for so long they’re almost ingrained in the manufacturing process,” says David Chittick, vice president for environment and safety at AT&T.; Nevertheless, AT&T; hopes to end all uses of CFCs by 1994.

The major auto makers are developing substitutes and are designing new air-conditioning units to accommodate the changeover, probably in the mid-1990s.

But the new air conditioners will be less energy-efficient and require larger compressors, experts say. “We feel we can do it without any dramatic effects on the look or design of the car. It’s going to be difficult though,” says Toni Simonetti, a GM spokeswoman.

Congress is considering legislation calling for the elimination of CFCs by the year 2000 and at least 20 states are reviewing proposals aimed at curbing CFC pollution. Vermont has banned the use of CFCs in auto air conditioners after 1994.

Du Pont has spent more than $100 million on research for CFC substitutes and estimates that it will spend as much as $1 billion to build production plants and to cover other costs during a 10-year transition period. ICI Americas, another major manufacturer, also has spent $100 million in CFC replacement research and recently announced plans to begin production of a substitute cooling agent by 1992 at a new Louisiana plant.

Cutting the Demand

But developing substitute chemicals will not be enough.

As much as 30% of today’s CFC demand will have to be eliminated by conservation and recycling, government and industry experts say. Major appliance manufacturers as well as auto makers recently have supplied their repair shops with equipment to capture CFCs rather than let the old coolant vent into the air.

But EPA and industry officials acknowledge that routine venting of old CFCs is still widespread.

Shifts to new manufacturing procedures or altogether new technology could account for a 30% reduction in CFC demand, especially in the electronics industry, the experts say.

But some critics say that industry is slow to accept new technology. “What we’re facing is inertia,” says Marc Goldberg of Crynodynamics, a New Jersey-based company that is producing a refrigeration system using helium as a cooling agent. The system is being marketed primarily for commercial uses. The major auto makers have expressed little interest.

Companies such as AT&T; and Northern Telecom are turning to new manufacturing procedures such as using low-solids fluxes to reduce leftover residues and eliminate the need for CFCs as a solvent for cleaning circuit boards after soldering.

“This (CFC problem) has caused a whole new review of the way we do business,” says A.D. Fitzgerald, director of environmental affairs at Northern Telecom, a Canadian-based manufacturer of telephone equipment.

The thorniest problems have emerged in the area of refrigeration and air conditioning because all substitutes under consideration pose energy and environmental trade-offs, particularly in the area of global warming.