In July, customs officials at the New Tokyo International Airport at Narita, Chiba Prefecture seized a cargo of Freon 12 gas that was shipped from Thailand as oil lubricant by a Nagoya-based used-car dealer.
According to customs officials, the Moji retailer tried to import about 36,000 cans of Freon 12, manufactured in China, by filing a customs declaration that the cans contained a gas that was not banned in Japan.
The permeation data, given in Table 1, show a significant improvement in permeation loss for ETP 65 compared with two commercially used hose materials - thermoset rubber and plasticized nylon - for both the current automotive refrigerant,
Freon 12, and an environmentally safe replacement candidate, Freon 134a.