HOLE IN OZONE LAYER
ARGENTINE AEROSOLS DO NOT CONTAIN GASES THAT MAKE OZONE LAYER THINNER

SEQUENCE OF FACTS

Year 1974: Attention! Ozone Layer is Getting Thinner
Prof. Mario Molina, a Mexican-American scientist, and other colleagues publish in Noture a report alerting about the thinness of the ozone layer caused by chemicals emitted by industry and natural effects.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were among those chemicals, had been an industrial creation during the ´30 and were a revolution in the refrigeration industry due to its refrigerating capacity. They were adopted by other industries besides the refrigeration industry (propellants for aerosols and polyurethane foams).

Year 1975: We Have Alternatives to CFCs, People from the Aerosol Industry Say
The first reaction in the USA: For some people, Mario Molina’s theory constituted an undetermined scientific controversy, which allowed them to continue with the use of those substances. The aerosol industry accepts the scientific challenge, and begins its change as from the fact of preparing alternative propellants derived from hydrocarbons that had not been indicated as destructive for the ozone layer.

Year 1987: Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol, which is signed in the said Canadian city, confirms the results of research made by Rowland, Molina, and others. The meeting called by the UN issues a list of depleting substances of the ozone layer (CFCs, among others), and sets a mandatory schedule to progressively abandon its use. Argentina is a member of the editing committee.

Year 1988: Affirmative Answer of the People from the Argentine Aerosol Industry
The Argentine Chamber of Aerosol (CADEA, in Spanish) calls its members to a Special General Assembly that commits those industries, which were still using CFCs, to anticipate the deadlines of the Montreal Protocol and to abandon the use of CFCs.

Year 1991: A Law Joins in the Decision of People from the Argentine Aerosol Industry
The Argentine parliament with the cooperation of the Argentine Chamber of Aerosol passes Act 24040, which when forbidding the use of CFCs in aerosols legitimated the decision adopted voluntarily by the industry a year before. Only medicines in aerosol for the respiratory system, and electronic contacts cleansers - both of low incidence in CFCs consumption - are temporarily excepted from the prohibition until alternative propellants are to be found.

Year 1992: Experience of People from the Argentine Aerosol Industry in a UN Forum and in the ECO ‘92
Súlim Granovsky, Cadea´s Vicepresident, is officially invited by the United Nations Program for the Environment (PNUMA in Spanish) to attend a workshop to be held in Caracas about the application of the Montreal Protocol in Latin America and to discourse on the experience of reconversion of the Argentine aerosol industry. Some months later, this dissertation is repeated in the Forum of the Non-Governmental Organizations (ONGs, in Spanish) during the ECO ’92.

Year 1994: Argentine Constitutional Reform Incorporates International Treaties
The Constitutional Convention -which met in 1994- modifies the 1853 Constitution, and incorporates international treaties like the Montreal Protocol.

Year 1995: Nobel Prize to Researchers
Prof. Mario Molina and his colleagues are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry due to their researches, that allowed to evidence the reasons of the ozone layer thinness.

Year 1996 Prof. Mario Molina Visits Argentina and He is a CADEA´s Host
In the headquarters of the Argentine Chamber of Aerosol, and during scientific forums and press conferences, Prof. Mario Molina emphasizes the responsible attitude of the aerosol industry when anticipating voluntarily to the tolerance deadlines established by the Montreal Protocol and Act N° 24.040.

Conclusion
There is no aerosol manufactured in Argentina which uses CFCs gases as propellants (those authorized by Act 24.040, as medicines for the respiratory system, have already begun their reconversion)

AEROSOL INDUSTRY PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

	1° CFCs Must not be Used The commitment of the Argentine aerosol industry with the community exceeds the fact of giving back tranquility when substituting CFCs by a blend of gases derived from hydrocarbons (propane and isobutane), which do not affect the ozone layer. (Besides hydrocarbons, other chemical elements are being used at present or are in a testing phase that do not either affect ozone layer)

	2° Explanation About the Atmospheric Issue The Argentine Chamber of Aerosol carries out a clarifying task on the atmospheric issue aimed particularly to teaching staffs and students through didactic activities, attendance in seminars, publishing of informative material (graphical printings, videos, Cds), and organization of painting contests.

	3° Cooperation with Governmental Entities The Argentine Chamber of Aerosol cooperates and organizes activities together with official entities like the Department of Environment and Sustained Development , which reports to the Ministry of Social Welfare, the Ministry of Education of Argentina and the Department of Education of the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.