Originally published on Transport & Environment. By Sam Hargreaves Future deaths like that of schoolgirl Ella Adoo Kissi Debrah are preventable, says the coroner’s report following her death. It recommends that legally binding targets match World Health Organization guidelines for air pollution, which, Transport & Environment (T&E) says, the government has … [continued]
Air pollution is now the world’s fourth-leading risk factor for early death according to the new State of Global Air Report released this week. The report, published annually by experts at the Health Effects Institute and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, summarizes our most current scientific understanding of the heavy burden that air pollution places on countries around the world.
An email in my inbox today proclaimed, “it’s September and we’re heading into pollution season in many regions.” I was taken aback. Does pollution have a season? Of course, there is seasonal variability to certain pollutants but, unfortunately, pollution lives with us in and outside our homes in every season.
There have been plenty of predictions of late about how quickly the US economy will recover from a pandemic-induced recession that has shut down most business activity and put millions of people out of work.
The Trump administration’s claim that two anti-malarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, should be regarded as treatment options for COVID-19 may be one of its most dangerous forms of misinformation yet.
Below is an article I published in August 2017. As we consider perhaps more than ever how much different things cause death in the USA, I think it’s good to take note of the vast number of premature deaths that come as a result of air pollution — 200,000 a year in the United States.
A rather arcane and largely discredited chemical industry-sponsored publication is still circulating, zombie-like, at the Trump Administration’s EPA science meetings, despite being basically dead among experts.
Like many people, I have been reading a lot about the outbreak of COVID-19 around the world and doing my best to take precautions with the best information provided to me. And even more so since I and all my colleagues at UCS are working from home.
International consensus on cross-border environmental issues has been difficult to achieve, but the 40-year-old Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air-Pollution (or LRTAP as it is known to development professionals) has enjoyed great, if largely unsung, success in the fight against air pollution and climate change.
Some people say they like the smell of gasoline, but that sweet odor they are talking about is probably a chemical called benzene, which is a known carcinogen. The World Health Organization, an international public health agency associated with the United Nations, has written this statement about the chemical: “Benzene … [continued]
