Feature Channels: Pollution

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The images leave no one cold: giant vortices of floating plastic trash in the world's oceans with sometimes devastating consequences for their inhabitants – the sobering legacy of our modern lifestyle. Weathering and degradation processes produce countless tiny particles that can now be detected in virtually all ecosystems. But how dangerous are the smallest of them, so-called nanoplastics? Are they a ticking time bomb, as alarming media reports suggest? In the latest issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, a team from Empa and ETH Zurich examines the state of current knowledge – or lack thereof – and points out how these important questions should be addressed.

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Exposure to air pollution, even over the course of just a few weeks, can impede mental performance, according to a new study led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

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In advance of a wildfire season projected to be among the worst, the American Thoracic Society has released a report that calls for a unified federal response to wildfires that includes investment in research on smoke exposure and forecasting, health impacts of smoke, evaluation of interventions, and a clear and coordinated communication strategy to protect public health.

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New research from the University of Utah ties the worsening trend of extreme poor air quality events in Western regions to wildfire activity, with growing trends of smoke impacting air quality clear into September.

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New research indicates that the computer-based models currently used to simulate how Earth's climate will change in the future underestimate the impact that forest fires and drying climate are having on the world's northernmost forests, which make up the largest forest biome on the planet.

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Toxic pollution hits poorer populations hardest as firms experience more pollutant releases and spend less money on waste management in areas with lower average incomes.

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Science Snapshots From Berkeley Lab – Water purification, infant-warming device, cuff-based heart disease monitor, ancient magnetic fields

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A new study that models peoples’ exposure to air pollution—resolved by race-ethnicity and income level—shows that exposure disparities among people of color and white people are driven by nearly all, rather than only a few, emission source types.

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In an effort to fight the millions of tons of marine litter floating in the ocean, Florida State University researchers have developed a new virtual tool to track this debris. Their work, which was published in Frontiers in Marine Science, will help provide answers to help monitor and deal with the problem of marine litter.

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Today at the Microbiology Society's Annual Conference, Yang Liu, researcher at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, will discuss a new technique to trap and recover microplastics.

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Asthma exacerbations rose following a catastrophic Christmas Eve fire that destroyed pollution controls at the Clairton Coke Works – the largest such facility in the nation, a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health analysis concludes.

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Nitrogen is essential for crops, but when it gets into the water supply, it spells big trouble. Scientists are trying to help farmers strike the right balance by measuring their fields.

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Scientists from NYU, University of Portsmouth, and Hamilton College will discuss recent work on sea level rise, the science of “blue carbon” stored in the sea, and important policy changes to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean.

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Researchers at the University of Delaware’s Center for Plastics Innovation (CPI) have developed a process called hydrocracking to convert single-use plastic waste into ready-to-use molecules for jet fuels, diesel and lubricants. The process requires 50% less energy than other technologies and doesn’t add carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And it can treat a variety of plastics, even when they are mixed together.

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With climate change looming, what must people hear to convince them to change their ways to stop harming the environment? A new Johns Hopkins University study finds stories to be significantly more motivating than scientific facts— at least for some people.

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An interdisciplinary group of Spanish scientists, bringing together biologists and chemists from the Universities of Seville, Huelva, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia of the CSIC in Cadiz, have just published the results of their pioneering research studying the management of marinas.

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UC Riverside engineers are developing methods to estimate the impact of California's destructive wildfires on air quality in neighborhoods affected by the smoke from these fires.

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Irvine, Calif., April 22, 2021 — California’s wildfire problem, fueled by a concurrence of climate change and a heightened risk of human-caused ignitions in once uninhabited areas, has been getting worse with each passing year of the 21st century. Researchers in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine have conducted a thorough analysis of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection wildfire statistics from 2000 to 2019, comparing them with data from 1920 to 1999.

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GEOMAR study points to possible major changes in the marine ecosystem

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A new study by a team including researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley reports that the social cost of methane – a greenhouse gas that is 30 times as potent as carbon dioxide in its ability to trap heat – varies by as much as an order of magnitude between industrialized and developing regions of the world.

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Scientists at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley have designed an enzyme-activated compostable plastic that could diminish microplastics pollution. Household tap water or soil composts break the hybrid plastic material down to reusable small molecules, called monomers, in just a few days or weeks.

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As Earth Day approaches, a promising startup that grew out of University of Delaware research is on the cusp of making sustainable green hydrogen a reality. Versogen, a UD spinoff company led by Professor Yushan Yan, is one of three startups selected for the fourth cohort of the Shell GameChanger Accelerator (GCxN) program.

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Just adapting to climate change is not something the world can afford to do. So, the CSU is exploring all options to thwart potentially disastrous consequences.

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Pollution from miniscule pieces of plastic, or microplastics, have been a growing concern for scientists, public health advocates and environmentalists as these nondegradable items have increasingly made their way into waterways and even the air we breathe. Now, scientists are showing that they might be altering cellular function.

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Plastics cycle through the oceans and roadways and become plastic dust, which rides the jet stream across continents.

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More than 91 percent of the world’s population lives in areas that exceed air quality guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization, and more people are impacted by worsening air quality each year. Ambient air pollution – including potentially harmful pollutants such as small particles and toxic gases emitted by industries, households, cars and trucks – has been shown to worsen viral respiratory infections. Now, new studies are showing a similar association between ambient air pollution and worse COVID-19 outcomes.

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A new commentary published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society provides an exhaustive examination of published research that discusses whether air pollution may be linked to worse COVID-19 outcomes. The studies that the authors examined look at several potential disease mechanisms, and also at the relationship between pollution, respiratory viruses and health disparities.

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A dangerous toxin has been witnessed - for the first time - releasing into the air from pond scum, research published in the peer-reviewed journal Lake and Reservoir Management today shows.

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Water quality management in the ocean often targets visible pollution sources such as sewage, rivers or ships. A new global study, led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg, reveals that invisible groundwater discharges may be just as important driving nitrogen into coastal waters.

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Qingzhi Zhu, PhD, Associate Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, has received a SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF) award for his research to develop a low-cost, high-accuracy nitrogen detecting system for wastewater systems.

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Researchers monitored the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic impacted food purchasing, pantry management and food waste and shaped our concerns about environmental regulatory changes and virus transmission. They found that the food system is a lot more fragile than previously thought.

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An international group of scientists from India and Russia has created edible food films for packaging fruits, vegetables, poultry, meat, and seafood.

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Patricia Bernal, a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Department of Microbiology of the University of Seville's Faculty of Biology, is working with the bacterium Pseudomonas putida, a biological control agent found in the soil and in plant roots and which, as such, has the ability to protect plants from pathogen attacks (organisms that cause diseases) also known as phytopathogens.

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Researchers looking at miniscule levels of plutonium pollution in our soils have made a breakthrough which could help inform future 'clean up' operations on land around nuclear power plants, saving time and money.

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A large gathering of fish tempts harbour porpoises to search for food around oil and gas platforms, even though the noise from these industrial plants normally to scare the whales away. Decommissioned platforms may therefore serve as artificial reefs in the North Sea.

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Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and their partners from Clemson University have discovered a green, low-energy process to break down polystyrene, a type of plastic that is widely used in foam packaging materials, disposable food containers, cutlery, and many other applications.

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Mary Nichols was named a Visiting Senior Fellow for a one-year term at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.  Nichols served as chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) – the state’s powerful air-pollution and climate regulatory agency – from 1975-1982 and 2007-2020. She was the assistant administrator for air and radiation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in President Bill Clinton’s administration, and helped to get automakers to cooperate in achieving cleaner air during President Barack Obama’s administration.

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As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, an international team of researchers have published a review of the best techniques to collect airborne aerosols containing viruses.

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In a collaborative effort to “recover, recycle and reuse,” Argonne strengthens research that addresses pollution, greenhouse gases and climate change and aligns with new policies for carbon emission reduction.

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Thailand’s PM2.5 dust particles level ranks as one of the highest in the world and poses health risks to the urban population. Having a reliable tool developed by Thais themselves to warn the public of PM2.5 dust conditions is crucial, and the “Sensor for All” project by Chula Engineering is an answer to this problem. During the past three years, a team of multidisciplinary experts of Chula Engineering has been working on installing sensor nodes, starting on the Chula campus, and expanding to cover the whole country.

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Recent studies estimate that we use an astounding 129 billion face masks globally every month - that is 3 million a minute. Most of them are disposable face masks made from plastic microfibers.

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Catalyzed by a Cornell University grant and Cornell sustainability research over the past decade, energy storage company Standard Hydrogen Corporation (SHC) and National Grid announced plans March 11 to build the first hydrogen “energy station” of its kind in the nation. The SHC Energy Transfer System will be built in New York’s Capital Region; completion is expected by late 2022.

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More than 500,000 Americans Live Within Three Miles of Natural Gas Flares - UCLA Fielding School of Public Health researcher Lara Cushing, assistant professor of environmental health sciences, co-authors nationwide assessment of the population facing exposure risks from the burning off of excess natural gas at oil and gas production sites

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Multinational companies headquartered in countries with tougher environmental policies tend to locate their polluting factories in countries with more lax regulations, a new study finds.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $24 million for research into technology that captures carbon emissions directly from the air, replicating the way plants and trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2).

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The Deepwater Horizon disaster began on April 20, 2010 with an explosion on a BP-operated oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers.