April 30, 1995

The Government's effort to curb the use of refrigerants like Freon is spawning a huge market in illegal imports and encouraging the use of potentially dangerous substitutes for the coolants, which are used in auto and home air-conditioners. Freon belongs to a class of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC's, that contribute to the depletion of the Earth's protective ozone layer. Because of that threat, the United States and more than 140 countries have banned the production of all CFC's by the end of this year.

The Pittsburgh-based Bayer Corporation, the American arm of Bayer AG in Germany, maker of such products as Alka-Seltzer and Bayer Aspirin, is joining the many pharmaceutical companies that have ventured into Morris County, N.J., in the last decade. Bayer is creating a 150,000-square-foot American headquarters and research complex in Morris Township, N.J., for its Consumer Care Division. The project, expected to bring with it at least 250 jobs, is to rise by year's end on 15 acres at the corner of Columbia Turnpike and Whippany Road.

FLEXIBILITY has been the mini-van's overriding appeal since Chrysler created the vehicle for the 1984 model year. Each new generation of mini-van has come with improved ways to carry passengers and cargo, thanks mainly to innovations that allow seats to be easily moved, folded or removed, and door configurations that make entry and exit easier. All mini-vans have two conventional hinged doors, for the driver and front-seat passenger, and a cargo door at the rear that lifts open. But it is the side rear doors, offering access to the second and third rows of seats, that make the difference. Most mini-vans have a single rear door on the right side while a few offer a door on either side.

Dallas Green is a little worried about his bullpen. Not about the runs the relievers have yielded, even though there have been more than a few and many have been costly. Green is worried about the quantity of the innings. "We've been in a couple extra innings and four barn burners," said Green. "We've been stretched out like crazy."

FUSED together in legend and on the map, Times Square and 42d Street are still a world apart economically. Along the bow tie-shaped intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, indications abound of fresh vitality: new leases, new construction, new supersigns. There is evidence, too, in the demolition and construction that are actually under way, that the renascence of 42d Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues may be at hand.