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.

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