Pick Your Poison- Chemicals In Everyday Life: CFCs-Hill-Enns

Chlorofluorocarbons

Once upon a time there was a man named Thomas Midgley, who thought he was doing the world a favour when he invented freon, a non-toxic, non-flammable alternative to chemical compounds such as chloromethane and sulfur dioxide. These chemicals were used as refridgerants but were extremely dangerous. (If you lit a match near your fridge, you would die.)

Freon is a chlorofluorocarbon, or CFC, which means it poses no biological harm to plants or animals, But in 1989 they were banned. Why you may ask? CFCs are a compound of 3 elements: Chlorine, flourine and carbon. When this gas rises into our atmosphere and reaches the ozone layer it is broken down by the sun and is decomposed leaving behind chlorine that deteriorates the ozone layer and allows dangerous UV rays to pass through our atmosphere. This is very basic explanation. in reality there are a few more chemical reactions that occur but are very hard to grasp(unless you're like a total science genius like me)

When released into the air, the CFCs rise through the Earth's lower atmosphere, and up to the second layer. They are then converted by the sun's rays into chlorine compounds that react with the second layer of the atmosphere, turning them into normal oxygen molecules. The suns rays easily penatrate the atmosphere and melt permenant ice and cause the world to slowly warm up.

In my opinion, this is the most dangerous chemical on this blog because it doesn't just affect the people who use it. CFCs affect the whole world, including, plants, animals and people. Other toxins may poison the human body but CFCs poison the earth itself. The use of this product should deffinetely be banned or else we could be destroying the lives of our children's children.