GETTING BY WITHOUT CFA's

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Electronics and Lens Cleaning

CFCs have long been used as solvents for cleaning electronic circuit boards and as pressurized gases for cleaning lenses, because they are easily compressed, are nontoxic, and leave no residue. These applications accounted for about 24% of CFC use in the U.S. in 1985, but that figure is dropping quickly. In industry, companies are turning to aqueous cleaning solutions, alcohol-based cleaners, diluted CFC cleaning solutions, new HCFC chemicals, and manufacturing processes that do not require cleaning.

On the consumer level, electronic hobbyists can still buy CFC circuit-board-cleaning solutions, but non-CFC products should work as well or almost as well. Ask your electronic equipment salesperson about available cleaning products. For photographers, small cans of CFC-based DustOff lens-cleaning products are still widely available in camera and electronic stores, but so are non-CFC alternatives. Look at these products carefully before buying. Alternative products using compressed air or CO, should be available.

Miscellaneous Consumer Products

Along with the above-mentioned CFC-based products, there are several specialized consumer products that use CFCs. These include boat horns, tire inflators, cartridge-type pellet guns, and devices to chill cocktail glasses. In all cases, alternative non-CFC products are readily available — and often more common. The trick is to be able to figure out which use CFCs and which do not. Whenever possible, select the non-CFC products.

Conclusions

Your effect on global ozone depletion may seem insignificant, but individual actions do make a tremendous difference. As a case in point, by the time the 1978 ban on CFC aerosols took effect, use of such products had already dropped 70% Consumers didn't want to use a product that might harm the environment, and industry responded. Each of us can wield the same power today.

Finding alternatives to many of the remaining CFC-containing products may not be as easy as it was when CFCs were taken out of aerosols, but if consumers demand them, alternatives will be found. Even refrigerator manufacturers will find replacements-and those new technologies might be far more energy efficient than what we have today, saving consumers billions of dollars yearly in energy bills. As the adage goes, Where there is a problem, there is an opportunity. Ozone depletion is clearly a problem. All of us have a role to play in solving it, and the solution may actually help to solve other problems, such as global warming.

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