California Saying No To CFCs

Environmentalists and governments everywhere agree that something must be done to halt the widespread use of chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs) and other substances that are destroying the earth's protective ozone layer -- and just about everybody agrees that nobody is doing enough. Last week the Southern California city of Irvine (pop. 110,000) did more than most.

By a vote of 4 to 1, the city council passed an ordinance prohibiting the manufacture, sale and use of virtually all ozone-depleting chemicals. Banned are plastic food packagings made with CFCs, certain types of building insulation and some solvents widely used for cleaning printed circuit boards in personal computers. Most consumer spray-can products are permitted; the majority of these are no longer propelled with CFCs. Refrigerators and automobile air conditioners are excluded, since no readily available substitute exists for the hazardous compounds they use.

Irvine's ordinance is a small but significant step. Of the city's 5,000 businesses, about 500 electronics, insulation and fast-food packaging companies will be affected by the new rules. They produce more than 700,000 lbs. of ozone-depleting compounds annually -- one five-thousandth of the entire amount of such chemicals used worldwide every year.