air pollution

A study finds stacking bricks differently could help this country fight air pollution

5:00am May 18, 2025

Bangladesh suffers from extreme air pollution, but a new study shows the brick industry can make small changes to have a big effect on the country's smog problem.

Air pollution still plagues nearly half of Americans. That does a number on our health

5:56pm April 23, 2025

Despite improvements in air quality in past decades, 156 million Americans still breathe in too much soot or ozone, says the annual State of the Air report from the American Lung Association.

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What you need to know if you're in the path of wildfire smoke

6:00am July 27, 2024

by Ginny Graves

As wildfires spread through Southern California, some people are at higher risk of health problems from the smoke, including children, older people and those with lung conditions. Here's how to stay safe.

A new version of the popular board game Catan, which hits shelves this summer, introduces energy production and pollution into the gameplay.

How do you build without over polluting? That's the challenge of new Catan board game

5:30am April 22, 2024

by Nathan Rott

A new version of the popular board game Catan aims to make players wrestle with a 21st-century problem: How do you develop and expand without overly polluting the planet?

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Robert Taylor lives about a half-mile from Denka Performance Elastomer, a plant affected by the EPA's new rule, in Reserve, Louisiana.

For communities near chemical plants, EPA's new air pollution rule spells relief

7:33pm April 09, 2024

by Halle Parker

The Environmental Protection Agency tightens standards for air pollution coming from more than 200 chemical plants in the U.S.

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Shell's petrochemical complex along the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pa., June 2022.

Taxpayer-funded petrochemical plants are polluting communities, report finds

5:01am March 20, 2024

by Reid Frazier | Allegheny Front

A fleet of new plastics plants in the U.S. often release illegal levels of air pollution, even while receiving big tax breaks from state and local governments, the report found.

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Air pollution has fallen across the U.S. since the Clean Air Act of 1970. But some areas, like Los Angeles, still suffer heavy pollution from soot and smog. New rules on soot pollution from EPA aim to lower that pollution burden further.

EPA tightens rules on some air pollution for the first time in over a decade

9:54am February 07, 2024

by Alejandra Borunda

The new regulations could save thousands of lives from deadly air pollution, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's calculations.

A pedestrian walks along the roadside amid heavy smoggy conditions in New Delhi. Delhi is considered the world's most polluted megacity, with a melange of factory and vehicle emissions exacerbated by seasonal agricultural fires.

Can anything stop the toxic smog of New Delhi?

4:03pm December 05, 2023

It's, considered the world's most polluted megacity. The air is so bad that a new report estimates that on average each resident loses 12 years of life. Here's what they're doing about it.

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The groundbreaking research of Linsey Marr, an aerosols expert and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, showed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is airborne as opposed to traveling in large droplets that fall with gravity.

This MacArthur 'genius' knew the initial theory of COVID transmission was flawed

12:07pm October 04, 2023

by Gabriel Spitzer

When COVID-19 first emerged, Linsey Marr suspected right away it spread through the air. Time has proved this aerosols engineer right. Now she's being honored with a MacArthur "genius grant."

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Superbugs catch a ride on air pollution particles. Is that bad news for people?

12:19pm September 07, 2023

by Gabriel Spitzer

Antibiotic resistant microbes from the soil, from aquaculture, from sewage and from hospitals can hook onto air pollution particles. A new study looks at the implications.