After the development of his electron capture detector, James Lovelock was the first to detect the widespread presence of CFCs in the air, finding a mole fraction of 60 ppt of CFC-11 over Ireland.
Data on the ozone layer provided by ERBS was key in the international community's decision-making process during the Montreal Protocol Agreement, which has resulted in a near elimination of CFCs in industrialized countries.
In 1930 Thomas Midgley, Jr. discovered dichlorodifluoromethane, a chlorinated fluorocarbon (CFC) known as freon.
Three-point rear seatbelts were now fitted to models fitted with rear seats and the air conditioning unit is now chlorofluorocarbon-free (CFC).
He was a key figure in a team of chemists, led by Charles F. Kettering, that developed the tetraethyllead (TEL) additive to gasoline as well as some of the first chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).