Scientists Are Warning of A Brand-New Kind of #AcidRain

Story by Darren Orf

Key points:
- While acid rain caused by sulfur dioxide is an environmental threat of the past (at least, for now), a new kind of acid is proliferating in rain water—as well as groundwater, ice cores, and even human blood.
- #TrifluoroaceticAcid (#TFA) is a subclass of “#ForeverChemical” that’s been steadily increasing in concentrations around the world.
- With calls to consider this rise in TFA a planetary threat, some governments are starting ban chemicals linked to TFA—but the threat will require global cooperation.

"Acid rain may have a sequel, and like most sequels, it’s arguably worse.

"While the world’s first bout of acid rain (at least, in modern times) came from increased concentrations of sulfuric acid produced largely from coal plants, this new #anthropogenic source is possibly more pervasive, more persistent, and more sinister. Its name is Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a kind of 'forever chemical' that, for decades, has been steadily increasing in #RainWater—but not just rain water.

"Countries around the world have found increasing concentrations in #groundwater, #ArcticIceCores, #wine, and even #HumanBlood. In fact, TFA is likely the most pervasive form of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl (#PFAS)—technically, a subclass known as ultrashort-chain perfluoroalkyl acid (#PFAA)—on Earth due in part to the fact that longer-chain PFAS degrade into TFA via #incinerators or #SewageTreatment plants. They’re also used in #refrigerants instead of #chlorofluorocarbons and #hydrochlorofluorocarbons, which were famously known to deplete the Earth’s #OzoneLayer.

"In October of 2024, a team of European environmental scientists raised the TFA alarm, stating that a rise in concentration could be considered a threat to '#PlanetaryBoundaries' — a system designed to make sure the planet remains #habitable for human life (which we are doing a real bang-up job at following).

" 'Since the 1990s, it has been suggested that hazard-related concerns of TFA and other short-chain PFAAs are much lower than those of PFAAs with longer perfluoroalkyl chains, which are more #bioaccumulative and generally more #toxic,' the authors wrote back in October. 'However, these early reports did not consider TFA’s ubiquitous accumulation in the environment, in particular its observed accumulation in water resources and #bioaccumulation in various plants, including crops.'

"One of the most dangerous things about PFAAs is what we don’t know about them. Unlike other PFAS (of which there are, sadly, thousands of different kinds), TFA is so small (a.k.a. ultrashort) that it’s water-soluble, meaning it likely passes through the human body pretty quickly. A new Nature article reports that some scientists find this evidence compelling enough to not even consider TFA a kind of PFAS, but a growing chorus of voices are raising concerns that increased concentrations of TFA in water and food sources could render TFA’s fast-moving nature a moot point.

"In fact, TFA’s water-solubility could be a long-term headache. If scientists and governments eventually decide that TFA does need to be removed from drinking water and other sources, current filtration technologies are not up to the task. In other words, ridding the world of TFA will not only be immensely difficult, it’ll also be incredibly expensive. Current regulations to eliminate certain forms of PFAS are already proving to be fiscally onerous.

"Thankfully, some governments are taking action. #Denmark, for example, banned 23 substances earlier this month known to contain PFAS that contribute to rising TFA concentrations. Meanwhile, the #US is lagging behind—the Environmental Protection Agency [#EPA] doesn’t even define TFA as a 'forever chemical,' much to the dismay of #environmentalist groups and to the merriment of many #industry leaders.

"Rising concentrations of TFA is the acid rain sequel no one wanted. But just like every terrible sequel ever made, it seems like we’re getting it anyway."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/scientists-are-warning-of-a-brand-new-kind-of-acid-rain/ar-AA1JhZaP?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=1f43e3736065441889cbebfb22a4eb74&ei=10

_A Premonition about the Unregulated Industrial Futures_

My sleeping mind last night conjured up a picture of the future that was incredibly bleak for humans.

I was standing in line to get on a passenger bus. But this was no regular bus, it was a semi-truck sized industrial bus, and it contained many seats crowded together. Some faceless person near me commented that while the busses _were_ getting bigger, the seats on the busses poor people were using were shrinking in size. But airplane seats in commercial jets were getting bigger to accommodate the bigger asses of the rich.

And my seat was small. It was crowded very close to another seat, maybe 4 seats across and one facing sideways on one side of the aisle, and mine was beside the one facing sideways.

The bus driver carefully checked each ticket, which for some reason looked like those tickets people use in raffles, and told the boarding passenger to go sit in the seat number with the last 2 digits on it. My seat had a plaque on it "Donated by the (something something) Youth, Class of '17): "Speaking for the Youth".

Probably an artefact of Drumpf's first presidency.

All around me, PoC on the bus were getting on and looking out the window which was about as high off the road as you'd expect being in an 18 wheeler that had been converted to bus.

After the bus started moving, I could see out the window on the other side of the aisle (no window seat where i was) that the bus route was paralleling train tracks.

An indeterminable time later, I'm standing in line with some people who are buying backpack-sized metal containers of what I understood to be gas or fuel. The people would get their petrol wrapped in a metal container and carry it back to the bus.

One person' who had just exited a church (don't ask me how I knew this in my dream)... this person was handed a petrol backpack leaking fire (kind of like how a natural gas stove makes that flame). And we griped in an annoyed way, as if this was a common happening for these backpacks.

We extinguished the leaking flames and proceeded back toward the bus.

But, way across the way, where the train tracks were, a very dark black plume of black black smoke rose. As I got closer to the train tracks, I could see rail cars passing by slowly, like total chaos and disorder... one train cart had industrial poisons beside one carrying produce beside one carrying someone trying to use a rail car as a food truck, hoping to sell to the throngs of people.

The black smoke had come from one of the industrial cars, and at that moment, I understood we were in Ohio. Someone had commented about how Ohio had jumped on the deregulation train first, because it was a Red state, and that the industrial mfgs could basically do whatever they wanted, they weren't regulated any more.

And so there were chemical spills everywhere, stacks of black smoke, people trying to consume food beside hazardous waste poisons, and a general bleak and sickly feeling of grief and impending doom.

2-3 years ago, I'd watched only the first few minutes of Mad Max before deciding it wasn't something i wanted to waste hours of my life on, but the dream atmosphere was kind of like that.

#Deregulation #MadMax #Industrial #PoC

#ABleakFutureForYourSpawn