You Find CFCs in Some of the Most Interesting Places
Posted on February 19, 2009
Filed Under Pollution | Leave a Comment
Though it was realized by scientists in the early 1970s that chlorofluorocarbons posed a massive potential threat to the ozone layer that protects the Earth (and it’s inhabitants) from DNA-damaging solar radiation, action was not taken on an international scale until for nearly 20 years. CFCs were, when they were invented in the 1930s, supposed to be a safe alternative to the refrigerants that were commonly used at the time.
During the 70 or so years that CFCs were manufactured in large quantities, they turned up in far more than air conditioners and refrigerators. For instance, they were the main propellant in aerosol cans for decades. They are a very common ingredient in fire extinguishers, though most older fire extinguishers have been emptied and refilled by the late ‘aughts. Even after the international ban on these chemicals that was brought about by the Montreal Protocols, CFCs and other “chloroalkanes” are still used in airplane fire suppression systems.
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