A new study shows the law of unintentional outcomes may have reared its dreadful head in the decades following the 1987 Montreal Protocol that successfully saved the ozone layer. Talking about this protocol, it was an international treaty approved by 197 parties and was designed to phase out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), such as freon used in old air conditions. It was perceived to be a ‘working idea’ which even reflected in the recovery of ozone hole in Antarctica. However, a new research conducted by the York University revealed that the chemical compounds serving as the replacements to CFCs are not a better alternative! To everyone’s surprise, these compounds disintegrate into products that do not break down in the environment. Instead, these have persistently increased in the Arctic since 1990!
CFCs have been widely replaced in majority of verticals including electrical, industrial, automotive, and construction applications by the short-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (scPFCAs)- a part of the perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) class of man-made chemicals. For the study, researchers from York University and Environment and Climate Change Canada sampled ice cores from two locations in the Canadian Arctic looking for three compounds of scPFCAs: trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), perfluoropropionic acid (PFPrA) and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA). “Our results suggest that global regulation and replacement of other environmentally harmful chemicals contributed to the increase of these compounds in the Arctic, illustrating that regulations can have important unanticipated consequences,” said Cora Young, professor at York University, and the paper’s corresponding author.
According to the results, since 1990, all three compounds have steadily increased in the Arctic. Concentrations of TFA were the highest, above the method detection limit in every sample from Devon Ice Cap and 96 percent of Mt. Oxford samples. Although slightly lower than TFA, concentrations of PFPrA were also above the detection limit in every sample from the two ice cores. On the other hand, concentrations of PFBA were much lower and not detected in all samples. PFBA was detected in 68% of samples from the Devon Ice Cap and 74% of samples from the Mt. Oxford icefield.
Measurements made throughout the 1980s confirmed scPFCAs were consistently detected at low levels in both ice core locations. However, researchers found TFA rose almost an order of magnitude between pre‐1990 and post‐2000. Similar increases were observed for PFPrA and PFBA over the same time period.
