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Mike Belliveau is senior strategist at Defend Our Health.
It started with a broken-down refrigerator. Our 20-year-old fridge was an energy hog that no longer kept our food cold enough. It was time to hit the big-box retailers.
We told the sales guy we wanted an energy-efficient refrigerator. “No problem,” he said. And one with no F-gases. “What’s that?” he said, scratching his head.
Fluorinated gases are used as refrigerants and foam insulation blowing agents. Emissions of these chemicals are rapidly heating the planet and contributing to persistent pollution from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — the “forever chemicals” also known as PFAS.
In a recent column published in the Bangor Daily News, F-gas producer Honeywell argued for a false choice between making climate progress or protecting our drinking water safety from PFAS pollution.
As I found out, safer alternatives that are both PFAS free and climate friendly are available.
That’s why the Legislature should reject the chemical industry’s bid for extensions of and exemptions from Maine’s PFAS pollution prevention law.
Back at the store, the appliance salesman had to pull out each fridge to read the labels on the back. The Chinese brands were all full of F-gases, potent greenhouse gases. But the American-made models contained no fluorinated gases.
I later learned that General Electric had proudly switched to safer substitutes. All of its refrigerators now use PFAS-free, climate-friendly hydrocarbons for refrigerant and insulation blowing agents.
Now, it’s time to replace our old oil furnace. We only use it for backup heat because we have an efficient wood-burning stove. But this furnace also heats our water and burns climate-changing fuel oil daily.
Heat pumps are a great solution. The friendly installer came out and sized up our needs. OK, we said, find us a heat pump with no F-gases. “What’s that?” he asked. We explained the threats.
Instead, he came back with bad news. He only sells heat pumps that run on F-gas refrigerants, which are greenhouse gases and PFAS.
The problem is that all heat pumps leak, losing 1 percent to 5 percent of their refrigerant yearly. Those air emissions add up fast and harm people and the planet in two ways.
The current F-gases, known as HFCs, reach the upper atmosphere, warming the planet. HFCs are greenhouse gases, thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels. That’s why a global agreement will slash HFC production by 85 percent by 2036.
A new generation of F-gases known as HFOs are PFAS based but climate friendly.
HFOs don’t warm the planet because they break down in the lower atmosphere into ultra-short-chain PFAS, which are washed out by the rains and pollute our water supplies.
Like other PFAS, these HFO byproducts are forever chemicals — they never break down in the environment. And they are extremely difficult to remove from drinking water.
However, safer PFAS-free alternatives are rapidly entering the market. These are “natural refrigerants” because they aren’t man-made fluorinated gases. They include propane, other hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and ammonia.
For example, Volkswagen announced that by 2030, all its electric vehicles would be air-conditioned with carbon dioxide instead of F-gases.
Back home, we found an eco-friendly solution to heating our water without burning oil.
A U.S. company sells heat pump water heaters that run on carbon dioxide — no PFAS and no potent greenhouse gases! We’ll also have a backup heat source by connecting them to our baseboard heaters.
Don’t hesitate to replace your oil furnace with a regular heat pump. The energy savings and net climate benefits are worth it. But tell your installer to ask for a heat pump with no F-gases.
Such consumer demand will speed the day when all heat pumps run on PFAS-free alternatives.
To help, the Legislature should reject the chemical industry’s proposed exemptions from Maine’s law to prevent PFAS pollution in our drinking water.
