Disarming the disastrous
following a widespread ban on the production of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons ( cfc s), researchers in the us are now attempting to turn massive stockpiles of these substances into useful or at least benign materials. Chlorine atoms from cfc s are known to destroy stratospheric ozone, thereby causing exposure to harmful ultraviolet ( uv) radiations which can in turn result in skin cancer, cataract, crop damage and global climate change. Now scientists at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, us, are converting cfc s into table salt and other harmless substances ( Environmental Health Perspectives , Vol 104, No 5).
Robert H Crabtree, a professor at the University and his graduate student Juan Burdeniuc say that they have developed an inexpensive method for destroying the stockpiles of cfc s, including an estimated 55 million kg of freon