ENVIRONMENT: Bromide the Target for Montreal Protocol

By Estrella Gutiérrez Reprint | | Print |

Estrella Gutierrez

CARACAS, Sep 15 1997 (IPS) - The elimination of the use of bromide will be the focus of debate at the conference of countries involved in the Montreal Protocol Concerning Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which opened Monday in the Canadian city, local environmentalists said.

Eduardo Lopez, president of the Venezuelan Industrial and Technological Investment Fund (FONDOIN) – the sole mission of which to carry out the commitment of Montreal Protocol – explained that time was short in combatting the so-called ozone hole.

This calls for industrialized countries to make a committment to eliminate bromide as an ozone depleting substance before the year 2001 or 2002, while the developing countres in the south will have ten more years to do so, he said.

Metile bromide does not have a universal substitute or one that has the same effectiveness for controlling pests and preserving fruit and other agricultural products. For that reason, exporters depend heavily on ozone depleting substances, said Lopez.

The Montreal meeting also marks the tenth anniversary of the Protocol.

Venezuela is one of the countries included in the Protocol’s Article 5, which establishes the rules regarding the ozone layer for a group of nations in the southern hemisphere that consume less than 300 grams of SAO per inhabitant, a level which is relatively very low.

Those countries included in Article 5 have until the year 2010 to eliminate the consumption of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), but will have freeze their production and consumption to the average levels between 1995 and 1997 on July 1st 1999.

The main destructive substances of the ozone layer are chlorine and bromide. These are highly stable substances, which when emmitted into the atmosphere remain floating there for five years until they reach the stratosphere.

There, explained Lopez, ultraviolet radiation breaks the molecule and liberates the chlorine. The substance is then mixed with the ozone, takes an atom of oxygen, and splits the molecule of ozone into a molecule of common oxygen, and another in which chlorine and oxygen are mixed, and so on until the protective layer is damaged.

With bromide, the process is even more accelerated. The potential destruction is ten times greater, but this difference is not taken into account in the Protocol – in contrast to the CFCs – because the role of bromide metile was unknown then.

An additional problem is that it has natural and human sources of emission. These substances are enormously toxic and can “kill anything”, explains another member of the Protocol’s Executive Committee, who represents Costa Rica and who previously represented Venezuela.

It is believed that production is concentrated in the United States, Israel and China, in addition to India. In the case of the latter, it is restricted to domestic use.

Lopez explained that the emissions of substances harmful to the ozone has decreased drastically and more than 90 percent are concentrated in countries in the industrialized North, where the use of CFCs has been practically eliminated.

Experts believe that if decisive measures are taken against the use of bromide, by the 2001 the ozone layer will begin to regenerate itself. But they doubt, for example, that the United States will be ready to eliminate the use of metile bromide in the year 2001 or a year later.

The main damage to the ozone layer is in the South Pole, because a so-called “Antarctic whirlpool” forms in the circumpolar vortex – created in part by geographic conditions – and thus accelerates the destructive process.

Besides the fact that the South Pole is colder than the North Pole, the high speed freezes clouds filled with SAOs, and when they thaw in the spring, all the substances are released at once.

The ozone layer has the problem of being so thin that if it were to be compressed it wouldn’t reach the thickness of a shoe sole. But despite its fragility, it forms a barrier capable of blocking the most lethal types of ultraviolet radiation, making it indispensible for the earth’s environmental balance.

The current calendar – which will be modified for metile bromide – requires industrialized countries to eliminate halons completely in CFCs and another two substances in 1996, bromide in 2010 and HCFCs (with water) in 2020.

Countries in the South have time until 2010 for halons and CFCs, although they must freeze it before 2002, and HCFCs must be elimnated by 2040. The FONDOIN is considered to be a model for the world, because of the way it operates and its results.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called Lopez “one of the best of the best”, in the anniversary of the Protocol.

In its appreciation of both Lopez and the FONDOIN, the EPA said that the they represent a worldwide example of work on the protection of the ozone layer and other environmental issues, and that their contribution to the work of the Protocol since 1989 has been essential. The EPA has also appointed two people from Latin America – one from Brazil and one from Mexico – from a total of 71 persons who had received awards or acknowledgments for their environmental work since 1987.

The U.S. agency pointed out that Venezuela has been the only country in the developing South to successfully manage halons and create a “halon bank” for reuse, which has begun to be imitated in Brazil.

Other FONDOIN plans have been applied by other countries included in Article 5 of the Protocol, like China and the Philippines, and in Latin America by Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.