ents to the protocol, members from nations around the world have committed to phasing out the production and consumption of CFCs, and a number of related chemicals, by the year 2000. (EPA 2000)Ozone depletion control started in the early 1970s, when the United States, along with a handful of other Western countries, expressed concern over emissions from supersonic transport (SST) aircraft and aerosol spray cans. (EPA 2000) Environmental groups organized opposition to the development of the SST and to the extensive use of aerosols. Public response led to a sharp drop in the sales of aerosol products. The U.S. Congress, prodded by government studies supporting the CFC ozone depletion theory and its links to skin cancer, approved the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to regulate CFCs. (EPA 2000) In 1978, the United States became the first country to ban the nonessential use of CFCs in aerosols. However, the EPA ruled that other uses of CFCs, such as refrigeration, were essential and lacked available substitutes. Ozone depletion emerged as a major international issue in the 1980s. This occurred primarily as a result of initiatives by the United Nations Environmental Programme and actions of the international scientific and environmental communities. A United Nations Environment Program to protect the ozone layer was signed in Vienna in 1985, and a protocol outlining proposed protective actions followed. (EPA 2000) The Vienna convention of 1985 embodied an international environmental consensus that ozone depletion was a serious environmental problem. (EPA 2000) However, there was no consensus on the specific steps that each nation should take. The Montreal Protocol, signed in September 1987, stated that there would be a 50 % cut back in CFC production by 2000. (EPA 2000) The United States ratified the Montreal Protocol in 1988. The 1990 London Amendments to the protocol stat...
