The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank which has received funds from the Chemical Manufacturers Association, put out an essay subtitled The End of Chlorine which claimed that "there is a mounting campaign, led by environmental activists in wealthy industrialized nations, to eliminate every last man-made chlorine molecule from the face of the earth." Such an idea is ridiculed by pointing out that "Mother Nature manufactures at least 1,500 chlorine-containing chemicals" including common table salt. The Alliance for the Responsible Use of Chlorine Chemistry says "Groups like Greenpeace want to rid the world of chlorine....hundreds of animals and organisms manufacture chlorine compounds...."

Greenpeace's calls for a gradual phase out of the industrial use of chlorine, initially seen as radical, were backed up by more respected mainstream organisations as the effects of dioxin emerged during the 1990s. In 1992 the Science Advisory Board of the International Joint Commission on the Great Lakes (IJC) concluded that organochlorines were a public health threat and that the use of chlorine as an industrial feedstock should be phased out:

We conclude that persistent toxic substances are too dangerous to the biosphere and to humans to permit their release in any quantity...We know that when chlorine is used as a feedstock in a manufacturing process, one cannot necessarily predict or control which chlorinated organics will result, and in what quantity. Accordingly, the Commission concludes that the use of chlorine and its compounds should be avoided in the manufacturing process. (Quoted in Montague 1996b)

The following year, in 1993, the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association, one of the leading scientific and medical associations in the US, unanimously endorsed a resolution urging US industries to stop using chlorine. It stated "the only feasible and prudent approach to eliminating the release and discharge of chlorinated organic chemicals and consequent exposure is to avoid the use of chlorine and its compounds in manufacturing processes" (Montague 1996a)

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Chlorine Chemistry Council, 'Chlorine protects public health', EnviroScan - World Wide Web (April 1995).

Malkin, Michelle and Michael Fumento, 1995, Rachel's Folly: The End of Chlorine, CEI Environmental Studies Program (27 September).

Montague, Peter, 1996a, Chemical Industry Strategies, Part 1, Rachel's Hazardous Waste News, No. 495 (1996)

Montague, Peter, 1996b, Chemical Industry Strategies, Part 2, Rachel's Hazardous Waste News, No. 496.