Fluorinated ‘forever chemicals,’ known as such because that do not naturally break down in the environment, are increasing in one of the most remote regions of Antarctica, researchers have discovered. Among their findings, the shorter chain compound, perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), was shown to have increased significantly from 2000 to 2017. “For this particular study we wanted to get away from the coastal margins and be up in the troposphere to get that really global background signal,” he said. The island is extremely remote and has no permanent residents, but researchers sampling ice cores there, also detected high levels of CFC-replacements. “They were able to detect more chemicals then we could, simply because our site is so remote there’s only a small handful of chemicals that manage to make it,” Halsall said.

Source: CBC News August 02, 2022 20:29 UTC