P.M. BRIEFING : Industry Hit on Chemical Use
An environmental group today criticized industry reliance on three widely used ozone-destroying chemicals, saying that while some companies are cutting back on their use others are relying on them even more.
The Natural Resources Defense Council produced industry figures showing more than 200 million pounds of the chemicals were released into the atmosphere by more than 3,000 companies in 1987, the last year for which complete figures were available.
Partial figures for 1988 show continued heavy use of the chemicals with “the vast majority of companies . . . yet to take any concrete steps to phase them out,” said David Doniger, a lawyer for the NRDC. “Their delays threaten the health and safety of all Americans.”
The subject of the NRDC study are two chemicals widely used as metal-cleaning solvents--methyl chloroform and CFC113--in the aerospace, computer and electronics industries. The third chemical is carbon tetrachloride, which is primarily used in the United States for manufacture of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs.
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