THE WAR ON OZONE DEPLETING SUBSTANCES (ODS) IS NOT OVER YET
On 3 Sep 2014 Costco agreed to pay USD 335,000
in penalties and pay USD 2 million to fix refrigerant
leaks and make other improvements at 274 of
its stores. Costco violated the Clean Air Act by
failing to promptly repair refrigeration equipment
leaks of the refrigerant R-22. Costco also failed
to keep adequate records of the servicing of
its refrigeration equipment to prevent harmful
leaks.
One year earlier on 4 September 2013,
Safeway, the second largest grocery
store chain in the US, agreed to pay
a USD 600,000 civil penalty. It also
agreed to implement a corporate-wide
plan to significantly reduce its emissions
of ozone-depleting substances from
refrigeration equipment at 659 of its stores
nationwide, estimated to cost approximately
USD 4.1 million.
Enhesa is a global environmental, health and safety
consultancy, providing EHS regulatory compliance assurance
support to industry worldwide.
What’s next?
As of 1 January 2015, products imported or
manufactured that contain or were manufactured
with an HCFC must bear a warning label before
they can be imported or put on the US market (40
CFR 82.100–82.124). Products that contain foam
are most at risk. They include foam packaging,
refrigerators; water heaters; vending machines;
building/roof insulation; pipe wrap and other
insulating foam products; boats or other equipment
containing foam for buoyancy purposes; taxidermy
manikins made of rigid polyurethane foam; spray
foam (specifically aerosolized polyurethane
foam); and certain imported aerosol, solvent,
and adhesive products. The label must state:
“WARNING: [Contains / Manufactured with] [name
of HCFC], a substance that harms public health
and environment by destroying ozone in the upper
atmosphere.”
In the European Union, the focus has shifted to
fluor [