The chemicals created to save the planet may have quietly created a new problem. Decades ago, the world phased out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the refrigerants and aerosols that were tearing a hole in the ozone layer. The replacements were cheered as a triumph of science and environmental policy. But researchers are now learning that those very substitutes have been quietly creating a “forever chemical” that’s raining down across the entire planet from city rooftops to the Arctic ice sheet.
According to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters by researchers at Lancaster University, between 2000 and 2022, CFC replacement chemicals and some inhalation anesthetics deposited the equivalent of about 335,500 tons of trifluoroacetic acid, or TFA, onto the Earth’s surface. That’s a third of a million tons of a hard-to-remove, stubborn chemical, and the problem is still growing.
