Feature Channels: Environmental Health

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UC San Diego’s nationally recognized, evidence-based Return to Learn program employs a comprehensive suite of education, monitoring, testing, intervention and notification tools that no other university is using. And the program continues to expand—including a recent introduction of weekly self-administered student testing kits, growth of the campus’s wastewater viral monitoring program and widespread use of the cellphone-based CA COVID Notify exposure notification system.

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A team led by researchers at the University of Washington Tacoma, UW and Washington State University Puyallup have discovered a chemical that kills coho salmon in urban streams before the fish can spawn.

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More frequent exposure to air pollution spikes were associated with reduced test scores for third graders in Salt Lake County. Schools with a higher proportion of students of color and from households experiencing poverty were exposed to more peak pollution days than were schools serving middle- to upper- class and predominately white students.

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A new study led by researchers at UC San Francisco has found that among older Americans with cognitive impairment, the greater the air pollution in their neighborhood, the higher the likelihood of amyloid plaques - a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

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U.S. pollution regulations meant to protect humans from dirty air are also saving birds. So concludes a new continentwide study published today in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Study authors found that improved air quality under a federal program to reduce ozone pollution may have averted the loss of 1.5 billion birds during the past 40 years.

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Dr. Yang Wang, assistant professor of environmental engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, advises homeowners to replace their furnace filter to help protect families from COVID-19 over the holidays.

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Biodiversity Research Institute announced that a series of scientific studies that assessed the impact of mercury on air, water, fish, and wildlife in New York State was published in the journal Ecotoxicology, an international journal devoted to presenting critical research on the effects of toxic chemicals on people and the environment.

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Triclosan, an antimicrobial found in many soaps and other household items, worsens fatty liver disease in mice fed a high-fat diet.

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Thailand will get help mitigating air pollution from a new satellite data application co-developed by The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System.

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DHS S&T's Master Question List is updated every week with the latest trustworthy COVID-19 information and data relevant to weathering the pandemic.

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Researchers monitored antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in three Puerto Rican watersheds after Hurricane Maria, finding that the abundance and diversity of ARGs were highest downstream of WWTPs. They report their results in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology.

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CSAC’s Jack Rabbit project research findings to be published in special edition of the prestigious peer-reviewed Journal of Atmospheric Environment.

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Researchers from the University of Utah document the effect of air pollution on people experiencing homelessness, finding that nearly all notice and are impacted by air pollution, whether or not they reside in shelters.

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The United States may have set itself up for the spread of a pandemic without even knowing it.According to new research from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, pollution may bear part of the blame for the rapid proliferation in the United States of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the spread of COVID-19.

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A team of researchers for the first time has found a correlation between the levels of bacteria and fungi in the gastrointestinal tract of children and the amount of common chemicals found in their home environment.

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In April 2020, as remote work and social distancing policies were in place in Delaware and a number of other states, there was a sense the skies were clearer and less polluted with fewer people on the road. But new research from a team led by University of Delaware, Penn State and Columbia University researchers found a murkier picture.

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In a mouse study aimed at modeling human exposure to the toxic metal cadmium, researchers found that female offspring of mice exposed to cadmium during pregnancy became obese in adulthood, developed fatty livers and could not process glucose normally. Male offspring were not affected in the same way.

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Businesses can learn how to be proactive in reducing the spread of COVID-19 by improving indoor ventilation and mitigation strategies through South Dakota State University’s Economic Development Administration Center.

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A new UC Riverside study shows flame retardants found in nearly every American home cause mice to give birth to offspring that become diabetic.

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The biggest study yet of West Coast wildfire plumes shows how a smoke plume’s chemistry changes over time. Results suggest current models may not accurately predict the air quality downwind of a wildfire.

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The first ultra-high-resolution analysis of an oil sample from Mauritius shows that the material is a complex and unusual mix of hydrocarbons—and even though some of the components in it may have already degraded or evaporated, what remains still gives it the ability to persist in the environment.

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S&T NBACC research finds that sunlight is the strongest environmental factor that inactivates COVID-19.

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A new North Carolina based company has been formed specifically dedicated to protecting North Carolina's coast in an environmentally superior manner.

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To mask or not to mask - and which mask to use? With public health guidance about masks in the United States confused by political hedging, clarity around mask use is increasingly important, especially as the western U.S. battles the twin crises of wildfire smoke and COVID-19.

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The University of New Hampshire has gone underground to flush out cases of the coronavirus by testing wastewater on campus. The sewage sampling is being used as a secondary surveillance method to the already required twice a week individual nasal test to track and detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

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The importance of maintaining high quality air flow to restrict transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in confined workspaces has been strongly indicated by the investigation of an outbreak of the virus at a German meat processing plant during May and June 2020.

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Researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have used a combination of laboratory experiments and computer modeling to reveal that PFASs can interact with the estrogen receptor in different ways to influence estrogen-controlled gene expression.

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Using a variety of public records—including assessed market value, sales, foreclosure and tax history, code violations, building permits and rental registry data—the researchers examined every rental property in Cleveland from 2016-18 on factors related to the likelihood that the property could have lead-safety problems.

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Researchers at Mount Sinai have proposed a groundbreaking new way to study the interaction between complex biological systems in the body and the environment. Their theory suggests the existence of “biodynamic interfaces,” an intermediate entity between the two realms, as opposed to conventional approaches that analyze individual aspects of the interaction between the environment and humans in isolation, according to a paper published in BioEssays in October.

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When the air outside is bad, office workers are more likely to order food delivery than go out for lunch, which in turn increases plastic waste from food packaging, according to a study by researchers from the National University of Singapore.

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The researchers found that a persons' place of residence substantially influences their risk of uncontrolled chronic disease including high blood pressure and depression

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Scientists examined cell abundances, size, cellular carbon mass, and how photosynthetic cells differ on polymeric and glass substrates over time, exploring nanoparticle generation from plastic like polystyrene and how this might disrupt microalgae. Conservative estimates suggest that about 1 percent of microbial cells in the ocean surface microlayer inhabit plastic debris globally. This mass of cells would not exist without plastic debris in the ocean, and thus, represents a disruption of the proportions of native flora in that habitat.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged all facets of human endeavours, and seven months later the economic effects are particularly being felt

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In unprecedented times like this, we often reflect on what we as humans can do to better our world. In terms of climate change, there are many ways we can make a difference, whether on a small or large scale, in order to create a sustainable and healthy environment for all.

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In Salt Lake City schools, absences rise when the air quality worsens, and it’s not just in times of high pollution or “red” air quality days—even days following lower levels of pollutions saw increased absences.

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The Center for Environmental Policy at American University and the American Lung Association will co-host a virtual discussion with Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

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Engineers from Cornell University and North Carolina State University have proposed a creative solution: an army of swimming, self-propelled biomaterials called ‘microcleaners’ that scavenge and capture plastics so they can be decomposed by computationally-engineered microorganisms.

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As the pandemic persists, COVID-19 has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the United States and damaged the public health system and economy.

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Researchers WHOI were recently named in a list of 17 new research projects funded by the NOAA to improve the nation’s collective response to the growing problem of harmful algal blooms.

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Environmental data on 200+ chemicals in the U.S. consumer cleaning product supply chain are now available, in pilot phase, through the American Cleaning Institute’s Cleaning Product Ingredient Safety Initiative database.

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Researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have investigated how hexavalent chromium, known as Cr(VI), can form in drinking water when corroded cast iron pipes interact with residual disinfectant.

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A new study shows that it is possible to achieve clean air worldwide with fundamental transformations of today’s practices in many sectors, supported by strong political will.

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Pollution particles, including metals, have been found in the placentas of fifteen women in London, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London.

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A University of Liverpool study of air pollution in the UK during the first 100 days of lockdown has revealed that whilst nitrogen oxide levels were cut by half, levels of sulphur dioxide increased by over 100%.

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With many people stuck inside for months on end, the built environment has played a significant role in the COVID-19 pandemic. With support from a new National Science Foundation grant, a team of engineers and social scientists will study the ways in which that built environment mitigates or exacerbates the pandemic.

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A study conducted by Hiroshima University researchers found that using Ultraviolet C light with a wavelength of 222 nanometers which is safer to use around humans effectively kills SARS-CoV-2 -- the first research in the world to prove its efficacy against the virus that causes COVID-19.