Desert dust storms are increasingly picking up materials like sewage, herbicides and other human-made waste and transporting them on tiny particles that are easy to inhale.
An adult male orangutan contemplates his next move in haze produced by Indonesia’s 2015 wildfires.
Wendy Erb
Fires in Canada have sent smoke across several US states, leaving cities including New York, Chicago and Denver with some of the worst air quality in the world – even far from the flames.
As California goes on regulating air pollution, other states often follow – including the Golden State’s ambitious goals for cleaning up emissions from trucking.
Toxic dust hung in the air around ground zero for more than three months following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Anthony Correia/Getty Images
Those directly exposed to toxic dust and trauma on and after 9/11 carry with them a generation of chronic health conditions, which are placing them at higher risk during the pandemic and as they age.
Poor indoor air on tribal lands can cause a range of respiratory illnesses, including viral infections. Here’s how people are fixing the problem while preserving traditional ways.
Australia has a lot of work to do to overcome the challenges facing electric vehicles users, starting with the lack of a comprehensive national charging network.
Sampling wildfire smoke sometimes means sticking a tube out the window of an airplane.
Brett Palm/University of Washington
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.
Black exhaust fumes from lorry envelope a motorcyclist and his passenger on a busy road in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu
Staff and customers with underlying health conditions are likely to be most at risk at drive-through windows.
The health impact of wildfire exposure depends in part on the fire itself and how much smoke a person breathes in, how often and for how long.
AP Photos/Noah Berger
Wildfires blanketing several Western cities are creating hazardous health conditions. Don’t count on cloth masks to protect your lungs.
Fresno, California and the surrounding San Joaquin Valley have some of the nation’s highest levels of fine particle air pollution.
AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian
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.
Clear skies over Los Angeles, April 17, 2020.
Araya Diaz/Getty Images
From Nairobi to Los Angeles, pandemic lockdowns have cleared pollution from the skies. But those blue vistas may be temporary, and shutdowns aren’t slowing climate change.
Diesel emissions are a major source of fine particle pollution.
Bob Chamberlin/Getty Images
After a 5-year review, the EPA is leaving US standards for fine particle air pollution unchanged, even though recent studies suggest that tightening them could save thousands of lives yearly.
Reducing fine particle air pollution from petrochemical complexes, like this one near the Houston Ship Channel in Texas, is a low-cost way to lower air pollution mortality.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Jason West, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yang Ou, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
A new study takes an innovative approach to reducing fine particle air pollution and spotlights key sources: factories that burn coal and oil, petrochemical plants and burning wood for home heating.
Smoke covers a street market in Palermo, Italy. October 8 2019.
Radiokafka/Shutterstock