Feature Channels: Pollution

• share
• favorite_border

New Jersey Poison Control director Diane Calello warns of health dangers to hobby shooters, employees, law enforcement officers and their families

• share
• favorite_border

Cooking in a frying pan with oil can quickly become dangerous if “explosive” hot oil droplets jump out of the pan, leading to painful burns. But these droplets may be doing something even more damaging: contributing to indoor air pollution. A group of researchers exploring these “explosive droplets” will present their work to uncover the fluid dynamics behind this phenomenon during the 70th meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, Nov. 19-21, 2017.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Clarkson University discovered a new process to eliminate the release of dangerous carbon monoxide gas from wood pellets in storage. The use of wood pellet boilers and stoves to replace heating oil, propane or older wood boilers supports Governor Cuomo's energy goals.

• share
• favorite_border

The Department of Defense has awarded a multi-institutional team of scientists a series of grants totaling $4.37 million to investigate the potential role of airborne pollutants as triggers of Parkinson’s disease via the nose.

• share
• favorite_border

Rural counties continue to rank lowest among counties across the U.S., in terms of health outcomes. A group of national organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National 4-H Council are leading the way to close the rural health gap.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Want to restore hearing by injecting stem cells into the inner ear? Well, that can be a double-edged sword. Inner ear stem cells can be converted to auditory neurons that could reverse deafness, but the process can also make those cells divide too quickly, posing a cancer risk, according to a study led by Rutgers University–New Brunswick scientists.

• share
• favorite_border

Many people around the world, especially in Asia, wear face masks to protect against air pollution. Do they work? Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD, Herman Hellerstein, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and chief of cardiovascular medicine at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, has received a $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to help find out if face masks really protect against air pollution.

• share
• favorite_border

New research presented today at APHA’s 2017 Annual Meeting and Expo examined the burden of air pollution and its association with mortality in Chinese cities.

• share
• favorite_border

• The estimated global burden of chronic kidney disease attributable to fine particulate matter is more than 10.7 million cases per year. • Results from the study will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2017 October 31–November 5 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA.

• share
• favorite_border

U anthropologists propose that agricultural productivity drove dispersal patterns of early Euro-Americans settlers in Utah in a process that led to the current distribution of populations today. They adapted a well-known ecological model, and tested its predictions by combining satellite-derived measures of agricultural suitability with historical census data.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Washington researchers have found a link between air pollution and psychological distress. The higher the level of particulates in the air, the UW-led study showed, the greater the impact on mental health. The study is believed to be the first to use a nationally representative survey pool, cross-referenced with pollution data at the census block level, to evaluate the connection between toxic air and mental health.

• share
• favorite_border

Analyzing samples from a prospective study, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers found that human exposure to glyphosate, a chemical widely found in weed killers, has increased approximately 500 percent since the introduction of genetically modified crops.

• share
• favorite_border

Despite widespread concern about potential human health impacts from hydraulic fracturing, the lifetime toxic chemical releases associated with coal-generated electricity are 10 to 100 times greater than those from electricity generated with natural gas obtained via fracking, according to a new University of Michigan study.

• share
• favorite_border

Pollution in the air, water, soil and in the workplace is linked to an estimated nine million deaths each year worldwide – equivalent to one in six (16%) of all deaths, according to a ground-breaking new report in the leading medical journal The Lancet.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Two professors with Northern Arizona University’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation (CBI) and Department of Biological Sciences—environmental physiologist Loren Buck and ecotoxicologist Frank von Hippel—are working on a long-term research project studying the link between the toxic chemicals polluting St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, and the health of the island’s population.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Michigan have brought a new method into the sound-dampening fold, demonstrating an origami lattice prototype that can potentially reduce acoustic noise on roadways. The technique allows researchers to selectively dampen noise at various frequencies by adjusting the distance between noise-diffusing elements. They report their work this week in the Journal of Applied Physics.

• share
• favorite_border

As so often happens in science, UAH doctoral student Aaron Kaulfus was looking for something else when he realized his forest fire smoke research might be significant.

• share
• favorite_border

“The decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan flies in the face of scientific evidence of the dangers air pollution poses to public health, and we cannot keep silent on this,” said George Thurston, ScD, chair of the ATS Environmental Health Policy Committee.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

As China struggles to find ways to remedy the noxious haze that lingers over Beijing and other cities in the winter, researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology have cast serious doubt on one proposed cause: high levels of ammonia in the air.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of researchers at the universities of Florida and Wisconsin-Madison will use the grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to pinpoint genes that could improve plants’ ability to access nitrogen, an essential nutrient for plant growth.

• share
• favorite_border

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory partnered with the University of Chicago to sponsor “All About Energy,” a six-week program that gives Chicago public high school students an up-close look at careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and a chance to learn what it means to be a scientist.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Portsmouth is helping to tackle air pollution and its harmful effects in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• share
• favorite_border

• In a study of US veterans, researchers found a linear relationship between air pollution levels and risk of experiencing kidney function decline and of developing kidney disease or kidney failure.

• share
• favorite_border

If the U.S. wants to start using wood pellets to produce energy, either the government or power customers will have to pay an extra cost, a new University of Georgia study has found.

• share
• favorite_border

UofL gastroenterologist Matthew Cave, M.D., believes that chemicals we breathe, consume or come in contact with in the environment may be contributing to liver disease. He has been awarded $4 million by the NIEHS to explore the effects of environmental chemicals on the liver.

• share
• favorite_border

● Higher exposure to secondary particles and ozone can be traced back to excess NOx emissions from diesel cars, vans and light commercial vehicles. ● With the EU’s vehicle emission limits achieved on the road about 5,000 premature deaths could be avoided annually. ● If diesel cars emitted as little NOx as petrol cars, about 7,500 premature deaths could be avoided annually.

• share
• favorite_border

A new nationwide study finds that the U.S. made little progress from 2000 to 2010 in reducing relative disparities between people of color and whites in exposure to harmful air pollution emitted by cars, trucks and other combustion sources. While absolute differences in exposure to the air pollutant dropped noticeably for all populations, the gap between pollution levels to which white people and people of color were exposed narrowed only a little.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Portsmouth disaster specialist is helping with the fight in Colombia against illegal gold mining and its impacts, from deforestation and toxic pollution, to socio-economic pressures on nearby communities.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

There might be a new and improved way to rid contaminated soil of toxins and pollutants: zap it with lasers. By directly breaking down pollutants, researchers say, high-powered lasers can now be more efficient and cheaper than conventional decontamination techniques. They have shown how such a laser system could work, describing the proof-of-principle results this week in the Journal of Applied Physics.

• share
• favorite_border

Three scientists have proposed a new approach to better understand the role of soil organic matter in long-term carbon storage and its response to changes in global climate and atmospheric chemistry.

• share
• favorite_border

A zone of water 30-50 feet below the surface of the Chesapeake Bay is increasing in acidity, threatening the health of the bay's shellfish.

• share
• favorite_border

The August tip sheet from Fred Hutch includes stories on breast cancer, skin cells as a cancer repair mechanism, an HIV prevention study, air pollution risk and more -- Here are quick summaries for journalists that offer sources and story ideas from Fred Hutch.

• share
• favorite_border

In recent decades, change has defined our environment in the United States. But, says a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study, while those changes usually result in poor water quality, lakes have surprisingly stayed the same.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study published today (August 23) in the Journal of Air and Waste Management Association builds upon recent heavy-duty natural gas vehicle methane emission measurements to model methane emissions from a future, much larger vehicle fleet. This study, conducted by researchers at West Virginia University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions, comes as the price of natural gas has decreased, leading to interest in natural gas as a cleaner replacement for diesel in heavy-duty vehicles.

• share
• favorite_border

In the megacities that are home to nearly 10 percent of the world’s 7.5 billion people, trees provide each city with more than $500 million each year in services that make urban environments cleaner, more affordable and more pleasant places to live.

• share
• favorite_border

Chemical engineers at the University of Notre Dame have discovered a catalytic process that could help curb emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from diesel-powered vehicles, a priority air pollutant that is a key ingredient in smog.

• share
• favorite_border

For many, the commute to and from work is a lengthy, stressful process. According to the U.S.  Census Bureau, it takes the average American about 26½ minutes to get to work. That’s nearly an hour each day — to work and back — to face traffic snarls and congested highways. That commute can also be hazardous to your health, exposing drivers to an increased amount of air pollutants that have been linked to a whole host of medical maladies, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory issues and even lung cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

Urban forests capture pollutants, store carbons and have other significant benefits that can be quantified

• share
• favorite_border

Manure is a reality in raising farm animals. Manure can be a useful fertilizer, returning valued nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to the soil for plant growth. But manure has problems. Odor offensiveness, gas emissions, nutrient runoff, and possible water pollution are just a few. New methods may reduce these negatives while potentially adding some positives: biochar covers.

• share
• favorite_border

Environmental scientists led by the Virginia Tech College of Science have discovered that the burning of coal produces incredibly small airborne particles of a highly unusual form of titanium oxide with the potential to be toxic to humans.

• share
• favorite_border

Shrinking the annual Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" down to the size of Delaware will require a 59-percent reduction in the amount of nitrogen runoff that flows down the Mississippi River from as far away as the Corn Belt

• share
• favorite_border

The study, conducted in mice, found that exposure to air pollution during the equivalent of the first or second trimester in humans was linked to more negative birth outcomes than exposure later in pregnancy.

• share
• favorite_border

Humans have created 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics since large-scale production of the synthetic materials began in the early 1950s, and most of it now resides in landfills or the natural environment, according to a study published today in the journal Science Advances.