Thousands of chemical compounds in wildfire smoke are interacting with each other and sunlight as the smoke travels. For people downwind, it can become more toxic over time.
A new study shows how toxic chemicals like benzene are leaching into water systems after nearby fires. The pipes don’t have to burn – they just have to heat up.
PFAS chemicals are toxic, widespread and persistent in the environment, and the federal government has been slow to regulate them. A scientist explains why evaluating them one by one isn’t working.
Endocrine-disrupting compounds are pervasive in modern life, from food packaging to shampoo. Research is connecting their effects on humans to risk of severe illness or death from the coronavirus.
A new study shows that while fine particle air pollution has declined nationwide over the past 40 years, the health and environmental benefits haven’t been shared evenly.
Flaring, or burning, waste gas from energy production has sharply increased over the past decade. It wastes usable fuel, pollutes the air, and helps drive climate change.
A new study finds an association between living near active oil and gas wells in California and low birth-weight infants, adding to findings elsewhere on health risks from oil and gas production.
Many Native American tribes are reporting high COVID-19 infection rates. State and federal agencies are impeding tribes’ efforts to handle the pandemic themselves.
We spend 90% of our lives indoors, and every building has its own indoor microbiome. Can we learn to manage them in ways that support helpful microbes and suppress harmful ones?
Gina Solomon, University of California, San Francisco
Starting Feb. 6, 2020, California farmers will be barred from using chlorpyrifos on their crops. The Trump administration says more study is needed, but other states are also moving ahead.
Average temperatures in Australia are already high by international standards, but what happens when they continue to rise? How much heat can our bodies withstand?
EPA is moving to regulate two chemicals from a group called PFAS that are contaminating drinking water. A public health expert explains why the agency should take much broader action.
Rising temperatures will not only hurt people in the future. Many are feeling the effects now. Those who work outdoors, those who have certain chronic conditions and the elderly are vulnerable.
It may come as a shock to discover that businesses are allowed to pay local authorities for advice on environmental health standards and food labelling.
Testing new industrial chemicals is essential for public health and the environment. But animal testing is costly, and too many chemicals are left untested. A new AI tool may solve the problem.
Chemical companies touted synthetic insecticides and herbicides as miracle products in the 1940s and 1950s. But farmers and cropdusting pilots didn’t always buy the sales pitch.