Millions of tonnes of this substance may form in the atmosphere each year.

A new study has concluded that millions of tonnes of highly reactive chemical substances – hydrotrioxides – can persist in the atmosphere for several hours, which could impact human health and the climate.

Hydrotrioxides interact very rapidly with other compounds, and their presence means that atmospheric processes need to be rethought. For a long time, it was believed that hydrotrioxides – chemical compounds containing one hydrogen atom and three oxygen atoms – were too unstable to persist for long under atmospheric conditions.

However, recent research suggests that hydrotrioxides are a byproduct of many common chemical reactions and can remain stable enough to react with other compounds present in the atmosphere. (...)