Date:         Sat, 12 Jun 1999 21:15:46 -0500
Reply-To:     "Mark B. Magee" <condor2@FLASH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Mark B. Magee" <condor2@FLASH.NET>
Subject:      Re: Who has the real skinny on R-12?
Comments: To: "Steven X. Schwenk" <Steve@Schwenk-Law.com>
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Steven, et. al.,
You bring up a good point; Monied Interests. From my review of the case for CFC's zapping the ozone layer is -very- weak. There are some interesting facts however:
1) CFC/R12/Freon was patented by DuPont Corp in the US and abroad many years ago. 2) 2) With slight tweaking of this molecule they (DuPont) was able to attain patent extension spanning nearly 50 years.
3) When it was apparent that no more patent extensions would be granted, this about 8-10 years ago, DuPont began (very cleverly from a business perspective) to send -huge- amounts of cash in the form of grant $$ to college professors who were just starting to theorize on ozone depletion due to CFC atmospheric release.
4) With this newfound $$, this relatively small cadre of scientists published thier findings and made a lot of excitement within the press of thier theory.
5) All the while, in the background, DuPont just happen to be able to patent the R-12 replacement, HF-134a, and have it officially approved by the EPA, and accepted among the major automakers in light of many competing companies with replacement molecules.
6) The scientist making hay over the CFC issue, were successful w/Dupont cash to get R-12 banned world-wide.
7) With R-12 now banned, no one can produce it "generically", and DuPont is making all the cash worldwide on the new refrigerant HF-134a.

You draw your own conclusions, I'll follow the money/greed as the primary motivator in this entire issue. For the science is theoretical at best.


Steven X. Schwenk wrote:

>     I know...and all this crap about the world being round, i don't believe that, either.  We would all fall off!  :~)  sorry, couldn't resist.  Ok...what's thew conspiracy, then?  What possible motivation to buy off reputable scientists world wide?  Sure, not everyone agrees...at least not yet.... too many monied interests for that to happen quickly
> ... but with the potential harm so great, does it not make sense to err on the side of caution until we know more?

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Shalom                                                    87 GL
Mark Magee                                            91 Westy
Kemah TX USA                                      96 Suzuki 4WD Sport
John 14:6