SANTA CLARA. — Hotel America, which belongs to the Cubanacán travel agency, made a national and international first last Friday by becoming the first Cuban establishment to be declared free of ozone depleting substances (ODS). On presenting the prestigious award from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), Nelson Espinosa Pena, director of the Ozone Technical Office in Cuba, explained that it was a significant achievement, demonstrating an awareness on the part of tourism authorities both in the province and across the country of the need to be free of all substances that can harm life on the planet.
Pena also stated that by avoiding the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the hotel in central Santa Clara, has set an example of what can be achieved when there is sufficient will to fulfill the mandate of the United Nations, which in 1995 established September 16 as International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.
He further stressed that Cuba has enjoyed undeniable success in meeting the goals set by the UN and the Montreal Protocol, with a strategy that has enabled a significant reduction in the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere, through the promotion of alternative technologies. Among the actions taken by the largest island of the Antilles, the specialist referred to the elimination of CFC in domestic and commercial refrigeration equipment, as well as pharmaceutical and industrial aerosols, something few States have been able to achieve.
The country has also succeeded in ensuring that no fire extinguishers contain halons, and imports of HCFC were frozen in 2013, together with other measures, Espinoza added. The ozone layer serves to shield the earth from ultraviolet radiation from the sun, by filtering out these emissions, without which life on earth would not be possible, hence the importance of limiting and eliminating the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC) and other substances responsible for the destruction of the ozone layer.
