Alpine Air at Jungfraujoch Reveals Car Refrigerants as New Pollution Source

Researchers at Europe's highest measurement station on Jungfraujoch have discovered a new environmental problem: refrigerants from car air conditioning systems are reaching the remote alpine air. The new HFO refrigerants, while not ozone-depleting or strongly climate-damaging like their predecessors, break down into TFA, an extremely persistent PFAS chemical that accumulates in the environment via rainwater and never degrades. The Empa team first measured these substances worldwide and tracks their origin using weather models. Switzerland has about half its vehicles using the new refrigerant, with concentrations still low but rising. Scientists warn the industry replaced one problem with another, and the full extent of consequences remains unknown.