Fluorocarbons in the global environment: a review of the important interactions with atmospheric chemistry and physics

Fluorocarbon impact on ozone depletion is reviewed together with the efficacy of the Montreal Protocol in acting to correct the imbalance between stratospheric ozone production and destruction. The Protocol is also helping to reduce global warming: CFCs are shown to be currently the largest fluorocarbon contributors to climate change. Relative contributions to climate change from CFCs and their HFC substitutes are discussed, together with the consequences of control of minor greenhouse gases on an environmental impact which is dominated by carbon dioxide emissions. Both the potencies of the materials for environmental change and their concentrations in the atmosphere are important and are considered here.Trifluoroacetic acid, a minor product of atmospheric decomposition of some HCFCs and HFCs and of the pyrolysis of fluoropolymers, has been shown to be uniformly distributed in seawater to a depth of over 4000 m and so is natural, although the actual source has yet to be identified.The Montreal Protocol is only one example of action to reduce undesirable impact from fluorocarbons. Other, less universal, actions include abatement of fluoroform greenhouse gas emissions from HCFC manufacturing, process changes to eliminate trifluoromethylsulfur pentafluoride emissions from electrochemical fluorination and ceasing manufacture of perfluorooctanyl sulfonate compounds due to their persistence in human tissue.