The World - News from May 3, 1989

More than 80 countries agreed to back stronger measures to save the Earth’s protective ozone layer, including plans to ban production and use of damaging chemicals by the turn of the century. The countries, attending a U.N.-sponsored conference in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, approved a declaration calling for Third World countries to receive financial and technological help in phasing out the chemicals, called chlorofluorocarbons. The declaration was not binding, but officials said it is a clear political signal and that the measures could be formally approved at another conference next summer. This would speed up the timetable of a 1987 conference, which called for a 50% cut in the use and production of chlorofluorocarbons by 1998.