Protection of Stratospheric Ozone; Final Rule ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

This final rule promulgates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) program for evaluating and regulating substitutes for ozone-depleting chemicals being phased out under the stratospheric ozone protection provisions of the Clean Air Act (CAA). In section 612 of the CAA, the Agency is authorized to identify and restrict the use of substitutes for class I and II ozone-depleting substances where the Administrator has determined that other alternatives exist that reduce overall risk to human health and the environment. EPA is referring to the program that provides these determinations as the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program. The intended effect of this final rule is to expedite movement away from ozone-depleting compounds by identifying substitutes that offer lower overall risks to human health and the environment. In this final rule, EPA is both issuing decisions on the acceptability and unacceptability of substitutes and promulgating its plan for administering the SNAP program. To arrive at determinations on the acceptability of substitutes, the Agency completed a crossmedia analysis of risks to human health and the environment from the use of various substitutes in different industrial end-uses. Results of this analysis are summarized in this final rule, which covers substitutes in the following sectors: Refrigeration and air conditioning, foam blowing, solvents cleaning, fire suppression and explosion protection, tobacco expansion, adhesives, coatings and inks, aerosols, and sterilants. Analysis of substitutes in a ninth sector, pesticides, will be completed, and the resulting decisions will be added to future SNAP determinations published in the Federal Register. These sectors comprise the principal United States industrial sectors that historically consumed large volumes of ozone-depleting compounds.