RP to phase out ozone-depleting refrigerants in ’06

Ozone-depleting refrigerants are to be banned in the Philippines from next year, in a move that would affect motorists with vehicles that are at least six years old, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said yesterday.

The phaseout would also affect manufacturers of foam mattresses, inhalers for asthma patients and other products that rely on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Michael Defensor said.

He urged owners of older cars that use the CFC-12 or R-12 type of refrigerants in their airconditioning systems to shift to the CFC-free R-134a used in newer vehicles.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol commits the Philippines to outlawing the production and consumption of compounds that deplete the ozone layer in the stratosphere.

Ozone, a molecule of oxygen, is a stratospheric shield for life on Earth, filtering out dangerous ultraviolet rays from the sun that damage vegetation and can cause skin cancer and cataracts.

Man-made chemicals, especially bromine, chlorine and CFCs, have been increasingly damaging the protective layer.

CFCs are an aerosol gas, previously used in refrigerators, whose use was belatedly controlled by the Montreal Protocol.

The government is now encouraging consumers to start using metered-dose inhalers (MDIs), which do not contain CFCs.

At the same time, salbutamol, the active ingredient most common in MDIs sold in the market, should be phased out by 2007.

Leah Tecson, project manager of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Environmental Management Bureau-Philippine Ozone Desk (EMB-POD), said the CFC in MDIs is found in the propellants.

"The CFC contained in MDIs is not actually toxic but it directly contributes to the thinning or depletion of the ozone layer," she said.

According to the DENR, 60 percent of MDIs in the market are imported, and the rest produced locally.

The Bureau of Food and Drugs and the Department of Health (DOH) will jointly hold a consumers’ forum on the phaseout of MDIs on Dec. 12.

The DOH has the administrative power to order its accredited hospitals to stop using MDIs containing CFCs.

Meanwhile, to keep with the scheduled phaseout of ozone-depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol, the government is aggressively pursuing the National CFC Phaseout Plan through a grant from the Multilateral Fund of the World Bank.

The plan follows a gradual phaseout of CFCs, commonly known as freon and widely used as a cooling agent for refrigerators and airconditioners, a blowing agent for foams, propellant for aerosols and MDIs, and cleaning agent for computer circuit boards.

The DENR has launched the Voucher System, which the EMB-POD has developed to provide free equipment to shops servicing airconditioners and refrigerators.

Under the program, the DENR will issue vouchers to eligible service shops of as much as P100,000 per application, which can be used to purchase tools and equipment for proper servicing, maintenance and installation of refrigeration and airconditioning systems.

The tools and equipment may include portable leak detectors, recovery and recycling machines, vacuum pumps and meters, and nitrogen regulators with gauges, which can be purchased from any DENR-qualified suppliers.

At least 3,000 eligible service shops nationwide will be awarded the grants in preparation for the country’s commitment to reduce 85 percent of the recorded 1990 base level of CFCs’ consumption by 2007.

In 1985, concerns about the damage to the ozone layer prompted governments to adopt the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer and establish an international legal framework for action to address the problem. — With AFP