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35,000 tons of undeclared carbon tetrachloride (CCl 4 ) are released into our atmosphere every year - although applications in which this substance is released into the environment have been officially banned by the Montreal Protocol since 2010. So where does this environmental pollutant come from? Empa researchers tracked down carbon tetrachloride and found the possible sources. «It is detective work,» says Stefan Reimann, a researcher at Empa's «Air Pollution / Environmental Technology» department and one of the authors of the studies on carbon tetrachloride. In fact, his work is comparable to that of an investigator. CCl 4 is one of the main substances responsible for the depletion of the ozone layer and was officially banned in the Montreal Protocol in 2010. The colorless gas is, however, still approved as an intermediate product for chemical syntheses, but it may no longer be released into the atmosphere. Therefore, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), all nations are obliged to ban emissions of CCl 4 and to report and quantify any emissions that may nevertheless occur.
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