HFC's - The New Pollution Threat?

I found this article which shows how new technology is enabling researchers to detect pollution and identify the sources of the pollution.

It showed that traces of HFC's are showing up in the heights of the Bernese Alps.

HFC's contribute little to the pollution of our air at this time but some worry about the future.

An interesting article, it is good to see tracking on the new pollutants before it gets to a critical point, maybe this time adjustments can be made to limit or eliminate potential environmental impact from the HFC's

Greenhouse gas makes its presence felt

A new type of greenhouse gas making its way through the atmosphere and spreading around the world could contribute to global warming, warn Swiss scientists.

Thanks to new technology, they have been able to track the spread of the compounds as far away as Australia.


The Jungfraujoch in the Bernese Alps. At about 3,500 metres above sea level you would expect the air to be fresh and clean.

But a measurement station perched on the ridge shows that the air at this rarefied altitude is in fact far from clean. The most recent example of pollution is the discovery of the first traces of two so-called foaming agents that belong to the family of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

These compounds are the successors of chemicals that infamously attack the ozone layer and were banned under the 1987 Montreal Protocol – CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons. Chlorine-based CFCs were used in refrigerants, propellants, and cleaning solvents, but also to manufacture plastics and insulation materials.

There has always been pollution threats though, and there always will be as long as people are still here. There is already a hole in the ozone layer (or more than one) and signs of global warming are already appearing. The threat has been here since we begain the industrial age. New pollutants really aren't that surprising.

That is true but when the CFC's were put on the banned list, some of these HFC's took there place, what this new data is enabling us to monitor the effects of HFC's in realtime rather than finding out too late.

Being able to identify this now should allow us to adjust before they also get to be a problem.

[edit on 2007/3/28 by JacKatMtn]