First Aid for the Ozone Layer

By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

The U.S. has long been able to claim the moral high ground in the campaign to stamp out chlorofluorocarbons, the chemicals that destroy the atmosphere's protective ozone layer. After all, America banned CFCs from spray cans more than a decade ago. And U.S. manufacturers are among the world's leaders in finding environmentally acceptable substitutes for CFCs, which are used as coolants and blowing agents for making plastic foam.

But last week it was the twelve nations of the European Community that took the lead in dealing with the threat to the ozone. In a surprise step, environmental ministers meeting in Brussels agreed that their countries would reduce CFC production by 85% as soon as possible and try to ban the chemicals altogether by the end of the century. That goes far beyond the 1987 Montreal Protocol, ratified by the U.S. and 30 other nations, which pledged only a 50% reduction by 1999.

The E.C.'s move galvanized the U.S. into action. President George Bush quickly called for a phaseout of all CFC production in the U.S. by the year 2000, if adequate substitutes can be found. Senator Al Gore, a Tennessee Democrat, introduced a bill in Congress requiring the U.S. to phase out all CFCs in five years.

The reason politicians are acting so swiftly on the CFC problem may be that the threat is indisputable. Strong evidence of the effect emerged in 1985, when British researchers announced the existence of a seasonal "hole" in the ozone layer over Antarctica. That was worrisome: ozone between ten miles and 30 miles up absorbs the sun's ultraviolet radiation, which has been linked to cataracts, skin cancers and weakened immune systems in humans and other animals, as well as to damage to plants. Data-gathering flights in the Antarctic in 1987 made the connection between CFCs and ozone destruction all but certain. After a similar expedition through Arctic skies last month, scientists said conditions are ripe for a similar hole to develop over the northern regions this spring.

That prospect helped jolt the Europeans into moving on the CFC issue. And at a London conference on the ozone issue this week, E.C. ministers will try to persuade other nations to adopt the CFC ban. High on the lobbying list: developing countries, such as India and China, that are just starting to mass- produce refrigerators and other CFC-using products.

If the idea of politicians as leaders in the ecology movement seems strange, even more surprising is who agreed to be the closing speaker at the London conference: Margaret Thatcher. Though she has long been accused of being insensitive to environmental issues, the Prime Minister promised last week that Britain will push manufacturers to eliminate chlorofluorocarbons from new refrigerators -- evidence that these days even the most conservative leaders are worried about the environment.

With reporting by Denise Claveloux/Brussels and Nancy Seufert/London