Sweden became the first country to ban aerosols containing CFC’s (chlorofluorocarbons) as a propellant on 23 January 1978 due to mounting evidence that CFC’s were damaging the Ozone layer.
As the 1970’s progressed, scientific understanding (and the work of chemists including Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen who became Nobel Laureates in 1995), of the protection from harmful ultra-violet radiation provided by the Ozone layer and how CFC’s used in refrigerant and aerosols depleted it increased.
The Swedish ban came before the discovery of a hole in the Ozone layer above Antartica and the coming into force of the Montreal Protocol, adopted on 16 September 1987, which aimed to regulate the production and use of substances that depleted the Ozone layer. Initially 46 countries signed the Treaty. Subsequently it has been revised eight times (London, 1990; Nairobi, 191; Copenhagen, 1992; Bangkok, 1993; Vienna, 1995; Montreal, 1997; Beijing, 1999 and Montreal again in 2007) and the Protocol now has 200 signatories
