Air Conditioning

     Stephen Read of UCLA Medical School clarifies the issue of air-conditioning, which is now in use almost everywhere:
     "Additional "medical" observations: Some viruses are endemic during low temperature seasons; this seems unlikely to be random, but being chilled has never been shown to be a risk factor for respiratory infections.
     Air-conditioning must perversely add heat to the environment (like your refrigerator puts out heat). So the overall effect is not to reduce ambient temperature OUTSIDE. The chemical issue is that older fluids were fluoro-carbons (CFC's), which, when released, migrated slowly to the stratosphere and are responsible for ozone destruction. CFC's have largely been replaced by other agents thought to be less environmentally toxic, but the stratospheric accumulation has not been completed due to the slow rate of diffusion upward.  

Ronald Hilton - 5/20/00