The American delegation to the UN which had led the dissent against the Montreal Protocol was insulated somewhat by the American media at the behest of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Overt collusion like this was at least still frowned upon at the time, so the administrations leveraged the FCC and EPA to impose penalties against those suggesting "unverified" linkage between industrial processes and the acidification of the world's rain.
The official party line was that it was clearly a harbinger of The End of Days. Acid a portent of Hell itself's proximity.
Brimstone being sulfuric instead of hydrochloric was a nuance lost on the American public.
In true supply-side fashion, American manufacturers were ready to make use of this fresh abundance of hydrochloric acid. Titanium Dioxide, and various organic forms of UV filters, could utilize HCl in their manufacturing process, which meant that it was an input in what would become the hottest selling item of the 1990s, protection from all the UV getting through the hole in the ozone layer, Sunscreen.