Does the article actually say how they came to the conclusion that "industrial pollutants" were causing this problem?
All the good Global Warming/George Bush's fault/evil oil companies whines were taken. Industrial polutants are caused by evil capitalists so it's sort of an im-plied twofer.
The halogens, especially our ubiquitous friend, chlorine, has been on the environmentalist's hit list for quite some time now, blamed for everything from ozone depletion to mass extinction; this is just one of the newer approaches to demonize its use.