Deodorant, hair spray, and shaving cream are just some of the products du Pont put into cans propelled by CFC. There are actually six different forms of CFCs that were used in commercial products: CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-22, CFC-113, CFC-114 and CFC-115. CFC-11 was used in aerosol cans and in the production of urethane foams. CFC-12 was primarily used in the manufacture of polystyrene, refrigerators, mobile air conditioners, and aerosols. CFC-22 was used mainly in home air conditioners and CFC-113 was primarily used as a solvent for cleaning circuit boards and for metal degreasing. CFC-114 and CFC-115 were used in refrigeration and cooling.
By 1954, 188 million cans were sold in the United States and in 1958, the number of cans sold soared to 500 million. By 1968, 2.3 billion cans were being sold a year. Nobody expected CFC's to be dangerous to the environment, because they were inert and didn't react with anything. In 1970, a British chemist decided to test the atmosphere for CFC content and changed the propellant world.
In 1970, Jim Lovelock, a "respected researcher holding a PhD" had quit his job because of the stability it offered. He believed that the stability would inhibit his creativity and restrict him from enjoying science. He ended up setting up a small lab in his country home in Bowerchalke and did consulting research. One day, in 1970, Lovelock got an idea to measure CFC's in the atmosphere. Since the CFCs could not be broken down by water (or by any other substance for that matter) Lovelock calculated all the cans that had been sold and how many refrigerators had been thrown away in the world and concluded that there would be a trace amount of the gas in the atmosphere. Lovelock wanted to measure the amount of CFCs in the atmosphere just because he could. He had invented a new device that was capable of measuring trace amounts of gasses and wanted to try it out. He also figured that since CFCs had been around for about 15 years, they would be excellent tracers for studying atmospheric circulation.