CHINA: Inferior and counterfeit refrigerant is still rife in China. A swoop on auto parts suppliers by officials in Guangzhou City found a quarter of all refrigerants did not meet the purity standard expected of R134a.
Of sixty automotive refrigerant samples taken from 51 dealerships, 15 were judged to be substandard. The City's Industrial and Commercial Bureau pinpointed R134a being mixed with other refrigerants or other substances posing as R134a. The impurities are not specified but, based on recent history, R12 is one of the major suspects.

Apart from being inefficient, the Bureau warns that substandard refrigerant may also cause damage to the automobile air conditioning system. It also reminds consumers to pay particular attention to the packaging specifications and warned that with R134a priced at over 30 yuan (£3) anything cheaper was likely to be substandard. It also pointed out that in most cases the quality of products can be distinguished by weight - the counterfeiters also providing short weights on their products.