Levels of nitrogen trifluoride NF3, a potent greenhouse gas, have risen dramatically in the atmosphere thanks to the rise in demand of electronic products like plasma TV.

According to a report in Nature News, nitrogen trifluoride is an extremely potent greenhouse gas used in the electronics industry, which is at least four times more abundant in the atmosphere than previously thought.

Scientists recommend that to better control its use, NF3 should be added to the list of gases regulated under future climate change agreements.

NF3 is 12,000-20,000 times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the best-known of six greenhouse gases regulated by the 1997 Kyoto protocol on climate change.

In the past ten years, NF3 has become an environmentally preferable alternative to more volatile perfluorocarbons.

It is now commonly used by manufacturers of plasma TVs and other flat panel displays as a source of reactive fluorine atoms, used to etch the silicon chips in the devices.

Because only very small amounts of the gas were thought to escape to the atmosphere in these processes - about 2 percent of all NF3 produced - it was long assumed that its contribution to man made global warming was negligible.

This notion was first challenged earlier this year when Michael Prather, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California in Irvine, questioned the commonly assumed emission rates of the gas.