British scientists from the University of East Anglia said that today China and India are the countries producing the largest volumes of chlorine-containing solvents and pesticides, and this poses a significant threat to the ozone layer of the Earth's atmosphere.
Experts note that thanks to the provisions of the Montreal Protocol, they still manage to save the Earth's ozone layer from destruction. However, it turned out that there are substances that pose a significant threat to the ecology of our planet, which have not previously received due attention from this point of view.
Thus, the agreement initially limited the use of freons and other halogen compounds that are dangerous to the Earth's atmosphere. Now, in addition to halogens and freons, dichloromethane has also come, the existence of which has long been known, but it was never considered a threat to the environment, since it rapidly decayed under the influence of sunlight.
Recently, experts have identified large clusters of dichloromethane clouds, which concentrated near the poles. Scientists could not understand how they appeared there. Further research showed that dichloromethane is actively used in the agricultural industry in China and India, which have recently been constantly developing the agricultural industry. This state of affairs may require changes to the existing protocol.