County Proposals Seek to Stem Ozone Depletion

In an effort to reduce the release of ozone-depleting chemicals, the county Air Pollution Control District on Thursday offered 16 proposals to regulate chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs.

The draft policies, a collaborative effort of the city and county, also seek to decrease halons and other chemicals that scientists blame for destruction of the thin ozone band that shields the Earth from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation.

Among other things, the proposals would prohibit the sale of certain non-essential aerosol products, prohibit the use of foam food-packaging containers when alternatives are available and increase restrictions on businesses and agencies that work with refrigerants and solvents, among other things.

The recommendation report will be topic of a public meeting on Feb. 22. After the meeting, the district will revise the proposed policies and forward them for a decision to the County Board of Supervisors, which has jurisdiction over air emissions in San Diego.

If approved, the blueprint would create the county’s first regional policy to protect the ozone.

CFCs are widely used as a coolant in refrigerators and air-conditioning units and as a solvent in various industrial processes. They were banned as an aerosol propellant by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in 1978. Halons are used exclusively in firefighting equipment.

Many scientists agree that both CFCs and halons have caused severe depletion of the Earth’s atmospheric ozone layer that, if allowed to continue, could cause more skin cancer cases and a gradual warming of the Earth.

By one estimate, CFCs and related gases make up about one quarter of all human-made emissions that contribute to global warming. So-called greenhouse gases, which include some CFCs, methane and nitrous oxide, behave similarly to the glass of a greenhouse, trapping heat close to the Earth’s surface and warming the atmosphere.

The Control District’s 48-page report prompted praise from Ruth Duemler, the San Diego Sierra Club’s air quality chairwoman, who called the proposals “a real great step forward for the county.”

Duemler added, however, that the recommendations don’t go far enough.

“With the foam packaging, they say we should look for alternatives,” she said, referring to the eighth recommendation, which only prohibits foam containers where alternatives are available. “But we’ve had different kinds of packaging for years. (Foam) should be banned.”

Among other things, the proposed recommendations would:

- Require all businesses, fleet operators, government agencies or other persons repairing or servicing any device using refrigerants to purchase and use refrigerant-recovery or recycling devices, thus keeping CFCs from being released.

- Prohibit the use of any foam material for building construction made using CRCs when alternatives are available. When alternatives are not available, the proposal said, an “expeditious” schedule for requiring alternatives would be developed.

- Prohibit the sale or use of non-essential aerosol products using CFCs as propellants, such as party streamers and noise horns.

- Prohibit the sale of home fire extinguishers containing halon.