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More Evidence Points to Chinese Origin for Ozone-Depleting Chemical Emissions

posted by chromas on Monday October 29 2018, @05:32PM   
from the if-it-walk-like-a-duck dept.

takyon writes:

More Evidence Identifies China as The Source of Mysterious Ozone-Destroying Emissions

For years, a mystery puzzled environmental scientists. The world had banned the use of many ozone-depleting compounds in 2010. So why were global emission levels [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0106-2] [DX] still so high?

The picture started to clear up in June. That's when The New York Times published an investigation into the issue. China, the paper claimed, was to blame for these mystery emissions. Now it turns out the paper was probably right to point a finger.

In a paper [open, DOI: 10.1029/2018GL079500] [DX] published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, an international team of researchers confirms that eastern China is the source of at least half of the 40,000 tonnes of carbon tetrachloride emissions currently entering the atmosphere each year. They figured this out using a combination of ground-based and airborne atmospheric concentration data from near the Korean peninsula.

Previously: Someone, Somewhere, is Making a Banned Chemical that Destroys the Ozone Layer
Illegal Chinese Refrigerator Factories Are Selling Banned CFCs

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Original Submission

• Interesting things one stumbles on Interesting things one stumbles on (Score: 1, Redundant) by c0lo on Monday October 29 2018, @10:29PM (1 child)

  by c0lo (156) on Monday October 29 2018, @10:29PM (#755385) Journal

  Carbon tet is a known carcinogen and, I believe a pretty powerful one.

  Halogenated Volatile Organic Compounds from the Use of Chlorine-Bleach-Containing Household Products [acs.org]

  Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and many organic chemicals contained in household cleaning products (pure and diluted) were investigated by headspace experiments. Chloroform and carbon tetrachloride were the leading compounds along with several halogenated compounds in the headspace of chlorine bleach products. One of the most surprising results was the presence of carbon tetrachloride (a probable human carcinogen and a powerful greenhouse gas that was banned for household use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) in very high concentrations (up to 101 mg m−3). By mixing surfactants or soap with NaOCl, it was shown that the formation of carbon tetrachloride and several other halogenated VOCs is possible. In addition to quantitatively determined halogenated VOCs (n = 15), several nitrogen-containing (n = 4), chlorinated (n = 10), oxygenated compounds (n = 22), and hydrocarbons (n = 14) were identified in the headspace of bleach products. Among these, 1,1-dichlorobutane and 2-chloro-2-nitropropane were the most abundant chlorinated VOCs, whereas trichloronitromethane and hexachloroethane were the most frequently detected ones.

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  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

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• Re:Interesting things one stumbles on (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30 2018, @01:08AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30 2018, @01:08AM (#755454)

  Yes, very interesting, thanks. I've always been leery of bleach-containing cleaners, do my best to avoid them but the SO is a big fan of sparkling white sinks and toilets. Going forward I'm going to only open such containers outdoors or in well ventilated spaces... and suggest that she do the same.

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