Europe's illegal trade in ozone-altering substances.

• Author: O'Meara, Molly
• Position: Atmosphere-destroying chlorofluorocarbons - Environmental Intelligence

Law enforcement officials in the Dutch city of Rotterdam and other ports in Europe are beginning to grapple with a problem that their counterparts in Miami know all too well: the illicit trade in chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which destroy the Earth's protective ozone layer. In the United States, scores of CFC smugglers have been arrested since the government launched a special task force in 1994, but in Europe these outlaws have remained in the shadows - until this year. A high-profile bust in the Netherlands and a sting operation in the United Kingdom have drawn attention to Europe's flourishing black market.

Black market profiteers exploit a gray area in the Montreal Protocol, the international treaty that has restricted the trade of CFCs since 1990 and has banned production in industrial countries since 1996 - except for a small volume produced for export to developing countries or for "essential uses" such as asthma inhalers in industrial countries. The doors of industrial countries are now closed to new CFCs from abroad, but they are open to used or recycled CFCs (which can be legally sold to service old equipment) or to new CFCs en route to a developing country. Unscrupulous brokers slip through this door with new CFCs made in China, India, or Mexico, which have until 2010 to complete their phaseouts, or in Russia, which has violated the 1996 deadline.

Cheap, foreign-made CFCs provide an easy "fix" for consumers reliant on outdated technologies. Although industry had eliminated CFCs from spray cans and solvents by the 1980s, it took longer to find alternative coolants. Thus, old air conditioners and refrigerators that still use CFCs will eventually have to be retrofitted to use ozone-friendly compounds. As the pool of recycled CFCs dwindles, prices should rise, spurring the technology shift. But illegally imported CFCs undercut the market.

Despite low CFC prices in Europe and lack of demand for retrofits - two good indicators of a thriving black market - a European Union group that had been organized to study illegal trade was disbanded in 1996 for lack of evidence. British researcher Duncan Brack warned European officials that until they made a major arrest, smuggling would only worsen.

Brack's warning was apparently heeded in July 1997...