According to the 1987 treaty, almost all kind of gases that can cause serious damage to ozone layer have been banned. However, scientists have found four new man-made gases that can damage the Earth’s protective ozone layer.
They were trying to find the industrial sources behind these gases. They were assumed to be used in making pesticides or refrigerants, which were found in Greenland’s ice as well as in air samples in Tasmania located in Australia. Everyone knows that the ozone layer protects earth from harmful ultraviolet radiations, which are the main cause for cancer and eye cataracts. According to the estimates of the scientists, over 74,000 tonnes of the four had been released to the atmosphere.
According to the study in the journal of Nature Geoscience, none of them was present before the 1960s in Greenland’s ice cores. According to the team of scientists, this is only a small fraction of million tones of CFCs produced every year at a 1980s peak. The team of scientists comprised of people from Australia, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Johannes Laube of the University of East Anglia in England said that it was strange if the emissions of the new gases were illegal, since the Montreal Protocol has some exemptions. He also added that they are hoping to tighten the loopholes.
According to him, gases are also likely to be powerful greenhouse gases, albeit in tiny amounts. When compared to carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, CFCs are more likely thousands of times powerful.
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