A chemical in flat screen TVs is suspected of doing major damage to the environment.

In the magazine New Scientist and the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters, University of California Irvine earth systems scientists Michael Prather and Juno Hsu report that a gas used in the making of flat screen televisions, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), damages the atmosphere, accelerates global warming, is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and is not covered by the Kyoto accord because it was little known and produced in only trace amounts when the treaty was signed.