Managing Environmental Risk
Management of Ozone Depleting Substance (ODS)
EHS has been actively involved with management of ODS since 1997. The focus of EHS work in this area is to assist regulators and industry association with the management of surplus ODS in
EHS assisted Environment Canada with the development of Canada’s Strategy to Accelerate the Phase-Out of CFC and Halon Uses and to Dispose of the Surplus Stocks, http://www.ccme.ca/assets/pdf/cfc_halons_dspslstrtgy_e.pdf. The work involved:
- Development of predictive models for CFC and Halon inventories in the major use sectors to quantify ODS stocks and the rate at which these stocks were being reduced.
- Conducting public consultations across Canada in both official languages on the Proposed Strategy to Accelerate the Phase-out of ODS (http://www.ec.gc.ca/ozone/docs/archives/en/phaseout/surplus2.cfm) by facilitating discussions with over 200 stakeholders representing industry, trade associations, government and environmental non-government organizations (ENGOs).
- Technical and economic assessment of over 40 technologies for destruction of surplus stocks of ODS. The assessments involved establishment of an International Expert Panel and a Working Group of Canadian stakeholders. This assessment helped to identify candidate technologies for the destruction of Canadian surplus ODS. The results of this study were presented in Geneva at a Workshop on the Destruction of ODS and at the meeting of the Technical and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) of the Montreal Protocol, held in Budapest, Hungary. (TEAP Progress Report April 2002)
Refrigerant Management Canada (RMC), an arm of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute (HRAI), was created by industry to collect and dispose of the CFC inventory in the Commercial Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning sector in Canada. A voluntary levy on HCFC replacement refrigerant provides the funding for this program, see www.hrai.ca/rmc/. EHS assisted with the launch of RMC by developing operating standards for the two types of Service Providers to RMC: Collection and Destruction Service Providers.
Since the launch of RMC operations, EHS carried out numerous audits of both Collection and Destruction Service Providers in Canada and USA.
EHS assessed the availability of suitable alternatives to Class II (HCFC-based) solvents for specific industrial cleaning applications in Ontario. EHS’ report became the basis for an extension of phase-out implementation dates for certain Class II solvents.
© Environmental Health Strategies Inc. (2010)