Organic Chlorofluoro Hydrocarbons

Abstract

Abstract This chapter is about organic chlorofluoro hydrocarbons, which are fully or partly halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F). In the early 1930s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were introduced in the 1930s as “safe” replacements for refrigerants such as sulfur dioxide, ammonia, carbon tetrachloride, and chloroform. The list was later expanded during World War II to include their use to produce insecticide aerosols to protect the troops in tropical areas against malaria and other insect‐borne diseases. Current usages include foam blowing, precision cleaning, and propellants for medicinal, cosmetic, and general‐purpose aerosols, air conditioning, and refrigeration. The expanded use of these CFCs has resulted in their emissions into the atmosphere. The CFCs have low chemical reactivity, long atmospheric lifetime, and are globally distributed. However, since they are ozone‐depleting and are also powerful greenhouse gases (GHGs), development was initiated to replace them with comparatively less ozone‐depleting and less greenhouse‐warming hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). Subsequently, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) were developed that were both less ozone‐depleting and less GHGs accumulating. Both CFCs and HCFCs are controlled under the Montreal Protocol. The widespread use concerns about their environmental and human health effects of these substances have been extensively reviewed. This chapter updates information on the health effects of some of the major and minor CFCs, HCFCs, and HFCs, their global emissions estimates, the discrepancies, if any, between the major reporting regions and the global atmospheric emissions values, and the likely sources of the gap between the atmospheric measurements and the reported emissions.