Feature Channels: Pollution

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For every 10 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m³) of increased exposure to PM2.5, the risk of dying from any cancer rose by 22 percent.

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Even small amounts of air pollution appear to raise the risk of a condition in pregnant women linked to premature births and lifelong neurological and respiratory disorders in their children, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

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According to new research led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) pulmonologist and critical care physician Mary B. Rice, MD, MPH, improved air quality in U.S. cities since the 1990s may not be enough to ensure normal lung function in children. The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care, a journal of the American Thoracic Society.

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Ocean Currents Push Phytoplankton and Pollution Around the Globe, Snowmobiling Could Be Hard Hit by Climate Change, Which Trees Face Death in Drought? More Stories in the Climate Change Channel

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Current measurement methods may be vastly underestimating the amount of plastic in the oceans. Due to ocean's movement, trash may be well below the surface, making it difficult to adequately measure and remove.

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Scientists, environmentalists, human and animal health professionals economists, ethics and public health specialists will gather to explore the science behind One Health-- and issues of importance to animal, human and environmental health throughout the world.

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The billions of single-celled marine organisms known as phytoplankton can drift from one region of the world's oceans to almost any other place on the globe in less than a decade, Princeton University researchers have found.

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Scientists from the University of Southampton have developed a graphene-based sensor and switch that can detect harmful air pollution in the home with very low power consumption.

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Rylinn Sorini, who is currently a senior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland duel majoring in biology and environmental studies, grew up in Rockville, just a few miles from the Potomac River — home to some of the most sought after oysters in the United States. Last summer, she began researching the effects of plastics on Eastern Oysters as part of a paid internship through St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SMURF) program. This year, she extended her research to include three additional experiments on oysters as part of her St. Mary’s Project (SMP), entitled “How Does Polyethylene Plastic Impact Crassostrea virginica (Eastern Oyster) Health?” Her findings reveal bad news for oyster lovers.

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Premature birth is a harsh change of environment for a baby. Until birth, the baby is confined to the mother’s womb, surrounded by soft lighting and filtered noise. When infants are born, they are attacked by several visual, sound, and tactile stimulations. These stimulations thus constitute unpleasant factors for them. Their impact has not been studied in depth yet. Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the neonatal team of the Grenoble university hospital (CHU), and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) examined the consequences of noise on the sensory abilities of premature babies. For the first time, this enabled the researchers to reveal the effect of a negative stimulus on the sensory functions of newborns. These results are available on the website of the journal Scientific Reports.

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Decreases in ambient air pollution levels over the past 20 years in Southern California were associated with significant reductions in bronchitic symptoms in children with and without asthma, according to a study appearing in the April 12 issue of JAMA.

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Dramatic improvements in air quality in U.S. cities since the 1990s may not be enough to ensure normal lung function in children, according to new research published in the April 15 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care, a journal of the American Thoracic Society.

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The massive icefield that feeds Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier may be gone by 2200 if warming trend predictions hold true, according to University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers.

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Analyses across metropolitan Boston show the need for better detection of natural gas emissions.

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Dangerous nitrate levels in drinking water could persist for decades, increasing the risk for blue baby syndrome and other serious health concerns, according to a new study published by researchers at the University of Waterloo.

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A new study quantifies the public health costs of polluted air from existing coal-fired power plants in the Western Balkans at up to 8.5 EUR billion per year.

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UCR study shows biomass grown in areas of poor air quality releases more pollutants when burned than biomass grown in clean air.

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Researchers analyze how nutrient pollution can negatively impact important ecological relationships.

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Clouds are notoriously hard to simulate in computer programs that model climate. A new study in the Proceedings on the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition suggests why -- either clouds are more variable than scientists give them credit for, or those bright white clouds in the sky are much dirtier than scientists thought.

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An El Niño winter which brought record rainfall in January has been threatening the ecological health of the St. Lucie River in southeast Florida. Ongoing discharges from Lake Okeechobee are damaging the delicate balance of freshwater and saltwater in surrounding estuaries.

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Plastic waste could find its way deep into the ocean through the faeces of plankton, new research from the University of Exeter and Plymouth Marine Laboratory shows.

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When original drawings and sketches from Walt Disney Animation Studio’s more than 90-year history traveled internationally last summer, conservators had the opportunity to monitor the artwork with a new state-of-the-art sensor. A team of researchers developed a super-sensitive artificial “nose,” customized specifically to detect pollutants before they could irreversibly damage the artwork. The researchers report on their efforts at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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From the Yellow River in China to the Mississippi River in Louisiana, researchers are racing to better understand and mitigate the degradation of some of the world's most important river deltas, according to a University of Colorado Boulder faculty member.

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Tracking biological emissions will allow more accurate assessments of climate action programs.

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Laboratory rats who breathed Beijing's highly polluted air gained weight and experienced cardio-respiratory and metabolic dysfunctions after three to eight weeks of exposure.

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New research shows that more than 5.5 million people die prematurely every year due to household and outdoor air pollution. More than half of deaths occur in two of the world's fastest growing economies, China and India.

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Noise from motorboat traffic makes some fish more than two and a half times more likely to be eaten by predators, according to an international team of researchers including biologists from the University of Saskatchewan.

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Harvard Chan School’s Philippe Grandjean, an expert in how environmental pollution impairs brain development, says that Flint, Michigan’s water crisis could have been prevented, given the United States’ long experience with lead contamination—and how to prevent it.

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Exposure to high levels of small particle air pollution is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth – before 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to a new study published online in the journal Environmental Health.

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Emissions controls on coal-fired power plants are making a difference in reducing exposure of mercury to people, especially in the western Maryland community. A study of air quality from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science found that levels of mercury in the air from power plant emissions dropped more than half over a 10-year period, coinciding with stricter pollution controls.

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The goal of the research project is to investigate human-natural feedbacks in freshwater systems by examining the linkages between land-use decision-making, water quality, and collective action taken by the public to protect water quality.

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Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have found a link between higher levels of a specific kind of air pollution in major urban areas and an increase in cardiovascular-related hospitalizations such as for heart attacks in people 65 and older.

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Residents of the northeastern city of Shenyang in China donned gas masks and locked themselves indoors on Sunday after their city was enveloped by some of the worst levels of smog on record. Pollution readings were about 50 times higher than that considered safe by the World Health Organization.

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According to a study led by MIT, Volkswagen's emissions cheat on their diesel vehicles will cause 60 people in the U.S. To die 10 to 20 years prematurely.

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A new study funded by the National Science Foundation shows that abandoned oil and gas wells near fracking sites can be conduits for methane escape not currently being measured, a significant finding given the current debate over new EPA rules regulating fracking-related release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

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L.A's CicLAvia, one-day events in which neighborhood streets are closed to motor vehicles so that people can walk and cycle freely, significantly reduces air pollution along the route and even on other streets in the communities where the event is held. Events like this could benefit other cities.

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In polluted environments, diesel fumes may be reducing the availability of almost half the most common flower odours that bees use to find their food, research has found.

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The very act of tolerating some forms of soil pollution may give trees an advantage in the natural world, says University of Montreal plant biologists. Their findings were published this week in BMC Plant Biology.

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Many people live in subdivisions with storm water ponds, which collect water from the neighborhood and help keep pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides and pet waste from getting into the broader environment. Now, UF/IFAS researchers and Extension faculty have devised strategies to help homeowners limit their pollution contribution.

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Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a lower National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone of 70 parts per billion (ppb)/8-hours daily maximum concentration. While today’s announcement represents progress towards improving our nation’s air quality and the overall health of the American public, the selection of 70 ppb ignores the compelling evidence that a more protective standard is needed.

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University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues have created exceptionally detailed maps of five Great Lakes recreational activities and say the information can be used to help prioritize restoration projects.

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A team of researchers at the University of Delaware has received funding from two agencies to investigate the use of biochar for management of stormwater runoff and pollutants.

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Mothers who are pregnant or have young children would be expected to be more concerned about protecting their offspring from environmental risks that are reported most in the news, but a new study raises doubts about that conventional wisdom.

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As much as 47 percent of the edible U.S. seafood supply is lost each year, mainly from consumer waste, new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) suggests.

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In what is believed to be the largest, most detailed study of its kind in the United States, scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center and elsewhere have confirmed that tiny chemical particles in the air we breathe are linked to an overall increase in risk of death.

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Fine particulate matter released from a variety of sources in Houston was associated with slight increased mortality risk from 2000 to 2011, according to research from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

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