Data processing Electricity requirements were accused of delaying the US transition to net energy and require that fossil fuel plants remain on the Internet, while their high level of water consumption also caused alarm. Now public health defenders are afraid that another environmental problem may be associated with them – PFA “forever chemical” pollution.
Large technological companies, such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon, often need to process data for storage of servers and network equipment that process world digital traffic, and artificial intelligence boom helps to demand more funds.
Lawyers are especially concerned about the use of objects Pfas Gas, or F-gaz, which can be powerful greenhouse gases, may mean that the climatic effect of data processing is worse than previously considered. Other F-gases turn into a type of dangerous connection, which quickly accumulates around the world.
No test pollution tests of PFAS or water have yet been carried out, and the companies are not required to report the volume of chemicals that they use or write out. But some environmental groups begin to strive for state legislation, which will require greater reporting.
The concern of the defenders increased in mid -September, when the Environmental Protection Agency announced This would quickly track the review of the new PFA and other chemicals used by figurative centers. Data processing industry said The PFA that he uses causes minimal pollution, but the defenders do not agree.
“We know that there are PFA in these centers, and all this should go somewhere,” said Jonathan Kalmuss-Kats, the lawyer of the Earthjustice non-profit organization, which controls the use of PFA in data processing centers. “This problem was dangerously studied, since we created the processing of centers, and there is no sufficient information about what long -term influences will be.”
PFA is a class of about 16,000 chemicals most often used for the manufacture of products that are resistant to water, stain and fat. The compounds were associated with cancer, congenital defects, a decrease in immunity, high cholesterol, kidney disease and a number of other serious health problems. They call “eternal chemicals” because they do not break in the environment.
Environmental lawyers say that data processing directly and indirectly increase PFA pollution. Chemicals are necessary in centers, such as its cooling equipment, which almost certainly leads to some pollution on the spot. Meanwhile, PFA used in equipment located in centers should be disposed of, which is difficult, because chemicals cannot be completely destroyed. Meanwhile, a large amount of PFA is used for production semiconductors posted in data processingwhich will increase pollution around the support of production enterprises.
Revelations arise in the fact that the United States is looking for an advantage over China as the leader of the industry in the field of artificial intelligence, and in the field of pollution of the centers there was little political interest.
“The USA and China are participating in races to see who can destroy the environment most of all,” said Lenny Zigel, a member of the Chips Communities United, a group working with industry and administration officials to try to introduce environmental measures. “If we had a reasonable approach to these things, then someone had to represent some answers before they develop and use these systems.”
Two types of cooling systems are used to prevent overheating of semiconductors and other electronic equipment stored in data processing. Water cooling systems require huge volumes of water, and chemicals Like nitrates, disinfectants, Acols and other compounds are potentially added and discharged in the environment.
Many centers now switch to a “two-phase” system that uses F-GAS as a coolant of the refrigerant, which passes through a copper tube. In this script, F-GAS is not available during use, although there may be leaks, and it should be disposed of at the end of its life.
The data processing industry on the data center said that F-GAS, which leaves turns into a connection called TFAThe TFA field is considered PFA in most the world, but not in the USA. Recent study I found that this is more toxic than previously expected, and could affect reproductive systems similar to other PFA.
Researchers in recent years have been Alarmed constantly growing TFA in airIN waterHuman blood and in other places of the environment. Meanwhile, some F-gas are powerful greenhouse gases that can remain in the atmosphere for millennia. But F-gases are profitable for industry: about 60% of all Pfas Produced from 2019 to 2022, were F-GAS.
Various PFAs are also applied to data processing cables, pipelines and electronic equipment. Chemicals are unstable, which means that they can simply move into the air from equipment.
Meanwhile, any of this equipment or waste PFA, which is intentionally removed from data processing, or ends on dumps where it can pollute local waters, or is burned, according to industrial documents. But burning does not completely destroy PFA's connections – it divides them into smaller pieces that are still PFA, or other by -products with unknown health risks.
Data centers are “a huge electronic waste generator with frequent modernization to new equipment,” said Mike Bellno, founder of Bend the Curve of a non-commercial organization that lobbying toxic chemical legislation.
“The processing and disposal of electronic waste is the main source of global harm,” he added.
The manufacturer F-Gas Chemows uses a boom in AI and data processing as an excuse to increase production in Parkersberg, Western Virginia and Feiitetville, North Carolina, and factories.
Both plants were accused polluts water, soil and air in its regions, as well as poisoning with drinking water. Residents of both regions say they was caused by Chemows pollutionThe field expansion plans for Chemurs were met with opposition from the fears that its pollution will also increase.
The new Coalition of Ecological Groups of Minnesota works with state legislators to develop a legislation that would require companies to report the use of PFA and other chemicals in the cooling process.
Legislators at state hearings asked technological companies what chemicals are used in data processing and how they are disposed of, but “the answers are not satisfactory,” said Evonna Stark, Minnesota, which leads efforts.
“You don’t know so much, and we are at the whim of these large corporations and what they are ready to tell us,” said Stark. “We think that the community has the right to know these things.”
