Air pollution: one of the world’s greatest public health threats

“Air pollution is one of the world’s greatest public health threats, reducing global life expectancy more than smoking, alcohol or childhood malnutrition. Recent studies estimate that fine particulate matter called PM2.5—pumped out by cars, factories, woodstoves and wildfires—causes nearly nine million premature deaths annually.” [Greenspan, J. (2023). Air Pollution Is Really Dangerous, Even More New Evidence Shows: Dirty air has been linked to poor health outcomes, ranging from suicidality…

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Wildfire smoke and dirty air are also climate change problems: Solutions for a world on fire

Drew Shindell, Duke University from (The Conservation) As the eastern U.S. and Canada reeled from days of thick wildfire smoke in early June 2023, millions of people faced the reality of climate change for the first time. Shocking images of New York under apocalyptic orange skies left many people glued to air quality indices and wondering whether it was safe to go outside. What they…

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California (USA) wildfire smoke over city

How wildfire smoke can harm human health, even when the fire is hundreds of miles away – a toxicologist explains

Christopher T. Migliaccio, University of Montana (from The Conservation) Smoke from more than 100 wildfires burning across Canada has been turning skies hazy in North American cities far from the flames. We asked Chris Migliaccio, a toxicologist at the University of Montana who studies the impact of wildfire smoke on human health, about the health risks people can face when smoke blows in from distant…

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Off-shore oil drilling can increase the spread of antibiotic resistance

Featured article: *Wang, J., & Jiti, Z. (2021). Petroleum exploitation enriches the sulfonamide resistance gene sul2 in offshore sediments. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, 39(3), 946-954. “Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been considered as emerging contaminants in nature owing to their wide distribution and human health risk. Anthropogenic activities can increase the diversity and abundance of ARGs and promote their spread in environment. Offshore…

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Microplastics: impacts on the environment and human health

Hundreds of millions of tons of plastics are produced each year. Millions of those tons enter our air, soil, and water as waste. As waste, some of this material–still many millions of tons–breaks down into smaller particles, or microplastics (< 5 mm in size); microplastics come from many sources including the manufacture of industrial products and the physical, chemical, and biological breakdown of larger pieces…

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Electric vehicles: benefits, technology, obstacles

Vehicles (cars and trucks) can be powered partially or wholly by electricity. “All-electric vehicles (EVs) have an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine. The vehicle uses a large traction battery pack to power the electric motor and must be plugged in to a charging station or wall outlet to charge. Because it runs on electricity, the vehicle emits no exhaust from a tailpipe and does…

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