ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-MEXICO: CFC Smugglers Active in Mexico

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, May 2 1998 (IPS) - While Mexican authorities are in the the forefront in terms of measuring solar radiation and warning of its dangers, smugglers are dealing in chemicals that destroy the ozone layer, according to environmentalists here.

Mexico is recognized by the World Heath Organization as an important center of research on ultraviolet rays, but it harbours a factory that produces chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in chemical aerosols that affect the ozone layer. Its products are being exported illicitly to the United States, say activists.

Accusations against the Quimobasicos company, which is located in the city of Monterrey have been filed by Ozone Action, an international environmental research group. Quimobasicos main share-holders are a Mexican firm Cydsa and the US-based transnational Allied Signal.

Luis Acosta, director of Solar Radiation for the Integral System of Environmental Information, told IPS that “once in a while, we hear or read these accusations of smuggling and we regret it, because Mexico goes to great lengths to protect the ozone layer and warn the population about the dangers of the sun.

The commercial manager for Quimobasicos, Jose Angel Anidon, rejected Ozone Action’s charges and maintained that the company exports CFCs legally to Latin American countries and sells these products to dozens of distributors and individuals in Mexico over which it has no control.

According to Ozone Action, a tank of CFCs in Mexico can be purchased for 42 dollars, but will bring 550 dollars in the United States. The production and sale of CFCs is legal in Mexico until the year 2010 while in the United States, its commercialization already is severely restricted.

To protect Earth’s ozone layer, an international protocol was signed in Montreal, Canada in 1987 in order to halt the production of CFCs, substances that are used primarily as refrigerants and solvents. Industrialized countries promised to eliminate most of the applications of CFCs by January 1996, while developing countries had until the year 2010.

Although Mexico is in the latter category, it has taken firm steps toward ending the application of CFC’s and already some 99 percent of local aerosols do not contain CFCs, and the use of these products is increasingly less in refrigeration systems and air conditioners, according to government statwements.

Quimobasicos, however, still moved in the opposite direction, Ozone Action said, and had introduced “alarming quantities” of CFCs in to the United States.

Anidon refuted these accusations and said the company was decreasing CFC production according to the directives of the Mexican government. It was not responsible for the smuggling of these products into the United States, he added.

Due to its geographic location, Mexico receives twice the amount of solar radia tion that some European countries receive, Acosta explained. If the ozone layer which covers the country diminishes over the coming years – as predicted by some scientists- ultraviolet rays could reach even more alarming levels than at present.

In countries like Germany or Finland, the level of ultraviolet rays during the summer season reach 7 points in a scale of 15, while in Mexico during the same period they reach 13 and 14 points, as was the case in the past few weeks, Acosta said.

Exposure to large quantities of ultraviolet radiation can harm the molecules that contain the genetic codes of individuals which, in extreme cases, can lead to cancer, according to studies by the World Health Organization.

Since February, the System of Environmental Information here has been broadcasting hourly public reports in Mexico City about the intensity of ultraviolet rays as well the maximum times of exposure for different types of skin.

“We are pioneers in the measurement of ultraviolet rays in Latin America,” said Acosta. “For this reason, the World Health Organization appointed Mexico as an international center for the dissemination of information on the subject.”

Thanks to the hourly warnings, the population “is beginning to understand the dangers of exposure to ultraviolet rays, and is taking measures to protect itsef from the sun,” he added.

Measurements of the intensity of ultraviolet rays allow authorities in Mexico City not only to alert the population, but also to relate these figures to polluting gases. Solar rays and combustion gases produce a photochemical reaction that irritated the respiratory tract of Mexicans and could lead to chronic respiratory illnesses, Acosta said.