An invisible rain of forever chemicals is falling across the planet, UK scientists warn

ORIGIN: https://www.yourweather.co.uk/news/

The refrigerants and gases brought in to protect the ozone layer have been quietly producing a persistent forever chemical called TFA that’s now turning up everywhere from rainwater to Arctic ice

Researchers have found that replacement chemicals introduced to protect the ozone layer have generated large quantities of a persistent PFAS compound that is now accumulating across the global environment.

When CFCs were phased out under the Montreal Protocol because they were destroying the ozone layer, the chemicals that replaced them were hailed a success story. HCFCs and HFCs, as they’re called, went into fridges, air conditioning systems and industrial processes around the world, and the ozone layer started recovering. It was a job well done, or so it seemed.

A fresh study, led by Lancaster University, has found that those replacement chemicals might not have been so good for the environment afterall. The scientists heading up the research found they have been creating a problem of their own.

Where the chemical is ending up

The researchers have discovered that as they break down in the atmosphere, HCFCs and