China ID’d as source of ozone-sapping gas
Some alarming news from the stratosphere.
Chinese foam manufacturers are releasing an ozone-destroying chemical into the air that goes against an international agreement meant to fix the ozone layer, scientists announced in a study Wednesday.
The chemical is a chlorofluorocarbon known as trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11), which the world agreed to phase out starting in 2010. In the past six years, emissions of CFC-11 have increased by about 7,000 tons each year, and the source is eastern China, the study says.
Up in the stratosphere, the ozone layer acts as a sunscreen, blocking potentially harmful ultraviolet energy from reaching our planet’s surface. Without it, humans and animals can experience increased rates of skin cancer and other ailments such as cataracts.
The naturally occurring ozone high in the atmosphere is the “good” ozone and is in contrast to the “bad” ozone near the surface, which is man-made pollution that can cause respiratory problems.
“It was unexpected when we saw that, starting around 2013, global emissions of one of the most important CFCs suddenly began to grow,” said study lead author Matt Rigby, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Bristol in England.
The study says two provinces in eastern China – Hebei and Shandong – appear to be major sources of the CFC-11 emissions. Researchers used air-monitoring equipment in Japan and South Korea to detect the Chinese emissions.
Scientists first discovered the thinning in Earth’s protective ozone layer in the 1970s and the infamous “ozone hole” over Antarctica in the mid-80s. They determined the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), used in refrigerators and aerosol sprays, caused the problem.
In the late 1980s, 196 countries signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty that limited production of CFCs around the world. Businesses soon came up with safer alternatives for spray cans and refrigerators.
Any increase in emissions of CFCs will delay the time it takes for the ozone layer, and the Antarctic ozone hole, to recover.