The Nation - News from April 26, 1989

Environmentalists urged the Bush Administration to advocate tougher steps to protect Earth’s ozone layer, saying the government has admitted current chemical controls are inadequate. A report prepared by the U.S. Public Interest Research group, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Studies, the National Toxics Campaign and the Clean Water Action Project cited new Environmental Protection Agency findings showing controls imposed on the use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, by the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty signed by 37 nations, will allow a drastic worsening of the problem. The groups said the Administration must press the world community to impose new controls on two other industrial chemicals--methyl chloroform and carbon tetrachloride--if the ozone layer is to be stabilized. CFCs, chemicals used as refrigerants, machinery cleaners and foam-blowing agents, have been viewed as the major cause of ozone depletion.