The U.S. in late 1986 urged an international conference in Geneva, Switzerland to consider steps to freeze and eventually eliminate production of chlorofluorocarbons and other gases that deplete the atmospheric ozone shield that protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Experts from 40 nations and 14 non-governmental agencies gathered to discuss the uses of chlorofluorocarbons and how to limit them. Chlorofluorocarbons are banned in the U.S. and Canada, but production worldwide increased annually by 7% in 1983 and 1984 (thus doubling every 10 years), and now totals about 600,000 tons per year. Twenty countries have signed and 8 (including the U.S.) have ratified the 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer.
--Peter Montague, Ph.D.

Descriptor terms: ozone; atmosphere; chlorofluorocarbons; federal; canada; switzerland; compacts; bans; regulation; global environmental problems; chemical production statistics; air pollution;