UCI: Insecticide more dangerous than thought

UCI chemists have concluded that a common termite insecticide is a powerful greenhouse gas that lasts for decades in the atmosphere — far longer than originally thought.

Sulfuryl fluoride lasts at least 30 or 40 years in the atmosphere, if not 100, according to a paper published by UCI scientists Mads Sulbaek Andersen, Donald Blake and Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Rowland in the journal “Environmental Science and Technology.”

Scientists put the chemical in a Pyrex chamber along with well-understood gases, then simulated sunlight with lamps to watch those chemicals break down.

Pound for pound, the chemical is 4,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, though there is vastly less of it in the atmosphere, according to the study.

In its current amount, the chemical has the same impact on California as the exhaust from 1 million vehicles. Sixty percent of world sulfuryl fluoride use is in California.

The scientists say they hope a suitable replacement that’s less dangerous to the environment can be found.

— Michael Alexander