ORS 468A.650: Legislative findings.

The Legislative Assembly finds that:

      (1) Scientific studies have revealed that certain chlorofluorocarbon compounds used in aerosol sprays may be destroying the ozone layer in the earth’s stratosphere;

      (2) The ozone layer is vital to life on earth, preventing approximately 99 percent of the sun’s mid-ultraviolet radiation from reaching the earth’s surface;

      (3) Increased intensity of ultraviolet radiation poses a serious threat to life on earth including increased occurrences of skin cancer, damage to food crops, damage to phytoplankton which is vital to the production of oxygen and to the food chain, and unpredictable and irreversible global climatic changes;

      (4) It has been estimated that production of ozone destroying chemicals is increasing at a rate of 10 percent per year, at which rate the ozone layer will be reduced 13 percent by the year 2014;

      (5) It has been estimated that there has already been one-half to one percent depletion of the ozone layer;

      (6) It has been estimated that an immediate halt to production of ozone destroying chemicals would still result in an approximate three and one-half percent reduction in ozone by 1990; and

      (7) There is substantial evidence to believe that inhalation of aerosol sprays is a significant hazard to human health.