The following information about R-12 was taken from 'The Driving Force' a publication produced by Valvoline Oil and distributed to ASE certified Master Automobile Technicians. Valvoline nor ASE is responsible for the "opinion" portion. Summer 1993 issue Under pressure from the Clean Air Act to eliminate production and importation of R-12, DuPont, the worlds largest manufacturer of R-12, will phase out production by the end of 1994. At least 65% of 1993 vehicles and nearly every pre-1993 vehicle with air conditioning requires R-12. 150 MILLION CARS AND LIGHT TRUCKS USE R-12. THERE IS NO "DROP IN REPLACEMENT" FOR R-12 and IT IS NOT PROBABLE THAT WE WILL SEE ONE. Unless something is done to relax the short sighted and arbitrary requirements of the Clean Air Act you will have to roll your windows down when your air-conditioner needs service. Auto makers are working on recommendations to convert SOME of the late model cars. To convert to the new R-134 will require replacing several major components, hoses, flushing with R-12 (which there won't be any!) and replacement of O-ring seals. Your air-conditioner system is also more likely to leak due to the smaller molecular structure of R-134. Cost estimate by industry experts: $800.00 You know how often estimates by "experts" are accurate. Cost of R-12 has already quadrupled but R-134 is still several times more costly. There are as many studies that show NO link between the Ozone layer and use of clorofluorocarbons as there are that suggest such a connection. While the Clean Air Act has a noble title and lofty ambitions, it is yet another in a series of poorly thought out, knee jerk reaction, short sighted and "We'll all have to give a little" STUPID pieces of legislation. Of course the folks that made the law won't mind because they also give themselves enough raises to be able to buy new cars and so won't be affected. The average age of a car in the US is between 7 and 10 years. These vehicles will either not be eligible for conversion or it will not be economically feasible to do so. You may safely expect a similar fate for the R-22 that is in your home air- conditioning system and your refrigerator and your freezer, etc. ------ Write your legislators NOW. They don't always listen when they should but if the owners of 150 Million cars write, WE WILL BE HEARD! *$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$*$ More on the Freon ban: Staying constantly aware of our effect on the environment just makes sense. Any other attitude is wrong. That's why I'm so incensed over a book I've just finished entitled The Holes In The Ozone Scare by Rogelio A. Maduro and Ralf Schauerhammer. The book was sent to me by a friend and engineer who has been following this situation for a number of years. The topic deals with the ozone hole that occurs over the South Pole that environmentalists claim exists because of the increased use of chloroflourocarbons (CFCs), which are the main ingredient in R-12 (often called Freon), a man made gas used as a refrigerant. According to this theory, a chlorine atom released by the breakdown of CFCs is what contributes to the depletion of the ozone layer. If this were true, then how does one account for the fact that the oceans evaporate approximately 600 million tons of chlorine (from the salt compound NaCl) every year? That's 800 times the estimated total volume production of chlorine in CFCs each yearly, not all of which is evaporated into the atmosphere! Add to this another 36 million tons of chlorine spewed into the atmosphere by active volcanos, and it's difficult to point to CFCs as a leading cause of ozone depletion. But this is just the beginning. The authors also point out that CFCs are heavier than air, which makes it extremely difficult for them to reach the upper layers of the atmosphere. Perhaps even more important is the fact that the first discovery of the ozone hole in the Antartic was by scientist Gordon Dobson in the early 1950s, before the widespread, worldwide use of CFCs. It is Dobson's and many other scientists' claim that the ozone hole occurs naturally. But best of all is that the stratospheric hole only occurs between the months of August and November! By early December, the hole simply disappears! While the authors of the book give their own theories to explain this phenomenon, there has never been a scientific connection between the existence of the ozone hole in the Antartica and the proliferation of the use of CFCs! Yet it is this connection that so many environmentalists claim is the cause of man's destruction of the ozone layer. How does this affect car owners? Consider that the replacement for CFC refrigerants such as Freon (R-12) is a new gas designed by DuPont called R-134a. According to the authors, this new refrigerant cannot be used in older systems since it reacts with the lubricants used in R-12 refrigerants and becomes highly corrosive, which will very quickly burn up your A/C compressor. Not only that, but R-134a is not as efficient a refrigerant ands it's going to cost much more than standard R-12. So why are we fixing something that isn't broken? It appears to have much to do with money. An international treaty banning CFCs, the Montreal Protocol, was signed in September 1987 and later updated in London in 1990. The net effect of this treaty was an EPA ban on CFCs, including halon fire extinguisher gas, by the year 2000! What most environmentalists won't tell you is that if the U.S. had not signed both of these treaties, we would have been subject to a worldwide trade embargo that would have been harmful to the economy! All for the sake of banning a chemical that isn't the Black Plague that the environmentalists want you to believe. This is why I'm writing this column now. The more people who know about this fraud, the sooner something will be done about it. Tell your friends. Write to your local newspaper. Bring it up in your chemistry class. But most of all, read the book. You can obtain a copy by contacting the publisher, 21st Century Science Associates, Dept. HR02, P.O. Box 16285, Washington, D.C., 20041, 703/777-7473. This is a very brief overview of the entire book. I hope that this has interested you enough to look into this fiasco yourself.