The press has reported that Chinese factories who make foam insulation have been using CFC-11. CFCs are chemicals that destroy our Ozone layer in the atmosphere which acts as a shield to the sun's powerful rays. Without it our planet is doomed.

Anyone who remembers CFCs and the hole in the Ozone layer being reported in the 80s and 90s realise how grave a concern this is to all life on planet earth. Once the world had stopped using CFCs in items like aerosol cans, fridges and so forth the hole in the Ozone layer that humans had created started to repair itself.

Now some Chinese companies who openly admit to using them but say the fines are no threat compared with the cost saving using CFCs gives them over chemical alternatives. No one is denying China an industrial revolution, other nations have had theirs and we should respect China in their affairs but there is no reason why they need to make the same mistakes the rest of the world made some years before.