Gorebull warbling hysteria has infected everything:
MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J., April 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Honeywell announced today that its new low-global-warming refrigerant for use in automobile air conditioning systems has received final approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The approval allows the refrigerant, HFO-1234yf, to be used in new cars in the U.S. HFO-1234yf has a global-warming-potential (GWP) that is 99.7 percent less than HFC-134a, the refrigerant currently used in most car air conditioning systems. The EPA granted the approval under its Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program.
“This is a significant step toward global adoption of this new refrigerant, which provides automakers with a near drop-in replacement for today’s refrigerant while helping them meet new regulatory standards,” said Terrence Hahn, vice president and general manager for Honeywell Fluorine Products. (Press release)
Introduce another new man made chemical to the atmosphere. Maybe in a few years this will be found to have some kind of negative effect elsewhere in the environment. Cannot fool with this planets evolutionary chain without some effect to occur.
If the trends in chemophobia run true, this refrigerant will be welcomed with open arms by some – until a ‘researcher’ with a less-than-amicable history with the manufacturer decides to run a data miner through the literature (or maybe a toxicity ‘simulation’ such as the EPA or OSHA might run) and comes up with something like “HFO-1234yf causes liver damage in lab mice”. Then it will become yet another anathema.