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Nevertheless, the Trump administration is considering relaxing rules on some PFAS chemicals because of their use in data centers.

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“This is the most common way of cooling in data centers,” says Norbert Conrad, deputy director of the High Performance Computing Center in Stuttgart, Germany. “It's similar to how a fridge is cooled, just much bigger. You use a compressor and gases to cool air or water for the computers.”

These gases can escape into the air, where they accelerate climate change. Some PFAS gases used in cooling of data centers have global warming potential that is thousands of times higher than CO2's.

PFAS chemicals can also be used in a different form of cooling, using immersion. Computers are submerged in a chemical fluid to which the heat transfers. PFAS fluids for applications like this can leak or seep into water sources, where they find their way to drinking water or are used in agriculture.

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