Concerns about environmental and health risks of some fluorinated carbon compounds used to make non-stick coatings and fire-fighting foams have prompted manufacturers to develop substitutes, but these replacements are increasingly coming under fire themselves. To get a handle on the scope of the problem, scientists have been studying how widely these chemicals have contaminated the environment. Now, researchers report in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology that, in one case, they have dispersed more broadly than previously realized.