Day 011 - 12 Jul 94 - Page 37
1 Were you given some figures to enable you to say what the
annual consumption of HCFC- 22 on behalf of McDonald's was
2 in, let us say, 1990 or 1991?
A. Yes. If we said the early 1990s that would be the
3 most accurate.
4 Q. Do you have the figures there? I am only doing it this
way because I cannot find the piece of paper which you
5 were given to enable you to do your calculations.
A. There are a fair number of pieces of paper. Yes, the
6 estimate I made was that the value had decreased from
about 0.27 kilotonnes in 1988 to just less than one- tenth
7 of the value, which is 0.0237kilotonnes in 1991. It is a
reduction of approximately a factor of ten and the 1991
8 value was just greater than 0.02 per cent of estimated
world usage in 1991. It is actually a very small amount.
9
Q. Knowing as you now do that there are, as I say, only two
10 countries in which to some extent HCFC-22 is still used as
a blowing agent for McDonald's packaging, what is your
11 opinion of the contribution which McDonald's are making to
depletion of the ozone layer?
12 A. As far as I can tell from the evidence I have been
able to gather, they have moved as rapidly as is
13 practicable to limit the use of the chlorine- containing
chemicals in their packaging.
14
Q. My question was perhaps not very well phrased. I will re
15 phrase it. In the amounts which you have put here, was
McDonald's contribution to depletion of the ozone layer in
16 that year significant, or not?
A. No, it was not in 1991.
17
Q. Does it follow from that that if their use of HCFC-22 has
18 decreased considerably since that year, that it is not
significant now either?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Now I want to ask you about something completely
different. As you will be aware, polystyrene foam is
21 sometimes blown, or extruded, or expanded, or whatever it
is, by hydrocarbons.
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. One of the hydrocarbons most commonly used for that
purpose is called pentane.
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Sometimes isopentane. Does it make a difference for this
purpose which it is?
26 A. It makes a difference in the sense that the actual
structure; the chain of the molecule is not identical.
27 Isopentane implies a branch pentane structure. Normal
pentane would imply the carbon atoms are in a line;
28 otherwise, in terms of chemical reactivity, no.
29 Q. Is pentane, indeed isopentane perhaps - I do not know -
otherwise known as an alkane? It is in a group of
30 chemicals called alkanes. Is that right?
A. It is.
