DEMON HALOGENS

"Naturally Occurring Organohalogen Compounds'' by Gordon W. Gribble, Accounts of Chemical Research, March 1998, reviews current research on the natural production of organohalogen compounds -compounds containing fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and/or iodine. Dr. Gribble is Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, 6128 Burke Laboratory, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755-3564. More information is available directly from him.

He reports that, as of September 1997, 2,900 naturally occurring halogen compounds had been identified. These are produced by plants and animals and by other natural phenomena such as volcanoes. One cited paper reports that termites alone account for up to 15% or 100,000 tons per year of CHCl3 (chloroform) emissions. One vent of a Kamchatka volcano was found to be producing a CFC in quantities 400 times higher than background.

Demon CH3Cl (methyl chloride) and similar compounds are produced in large quantities by the 200,000 annual lightning-triggered forest and brush fires. Annual natural production of CH3Cl is 5 to 6 million tons as compared with 26 thousand tons from human activities. These same fires produce 30% of the CH3Br (methyl bromide) found in the stratosphere. Several North American fires were found to be releasing 60 thousand tons of CF2Cl2 (dichlorodifluoromethane).

The enviros are well along in their assault on the last row of the periodic table. The banning of freon and other CFCs is their most infamous victory to date. HFCs, PFCs, and SF6 are now targeted along with CO2, CH4, and N2O by the Kyoto global warming treaty.

These things are, of course, not easily explainable to high school seniors and young voters who, as products of American public schools, have received the worst education in science in the developed world. Is it surprising that propagandists can persuade these people that carbon dioxide is a noxious industrial emission that needs to be reduced?