Word: fluorocarbons
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...almost everything from deodorants to oven cleaners. Americans are the major consumers of the spray products sold in the world today. But they may soon have to learn to live without them. A committee of the National Research Council concluded in a report released last week that the fluorocarbon gases used as propellants for spray products deplete the ozone layer. It is that shield which protects the earth from an overdose of the sun's potentially deadly ultraviolet rays. The report sets the stage for an eventual ban on the sprays...
Conducted with the sponsorship of several Government agencies, the yearlong NRC study agreed that fluorocarbons do, as suspected, percolate upward into the stratosphere, where their chlorine atoms react with and thus destroy ozone molecules. According to the NRC report, if the fluorocarbon release continues at the 1973 rate, it could ultimately deplete the three-mile-thick ozone layer by as much as 7%. Public health authorities predict that the subsequent increase in the amount of ultraviolet light reaching the earth would raise by about 200 the number of Americans afflicted annually by malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer that...
AEROSOL: A DEFENSE. Over the past two years, several scientists have become concerned about fluorocarbon propellants, used in aerosol sprays, drifting up through the stratosphere. In their doomsday scenario, these fluorocarbons break down to form chlorine atoms that gradually destroy the ozone shield protecting the earth from an overdose of the sun's ultraviolet rays; this, in turn, increases the risk that humans down on earth will develop skin cancer...
Michael B. McElroy, Rotch Professor of Atmospheric Science, told a federal task force in Washington that fluorocarbon gases used in aerosol sprays and refrigerants are reducing the ozone layer, which screens out dangerous ultra-violet radiation...
...also called for new congressional legislation to control fluorocarbon pollution by industry and agriculture. He said that no current legislation covers this type of pollution...