What better time than Air Quality Awareness Week to give our lungs a break

Nowadays, considerable time and energy is devoted to combatting climate change and global warming directly — which is a good thing. At the same time, significant time and energy is spent on dealing with climate change/global warming fallout — and that isn’t. Making worse those matters, it has been known for some time now that … Read more

2024 ‘State of the Air’ report and findings are out

The American Lung Association’s new “State of the Air” report reveals that spikes in deadly particle pollution are the most severe they’ve been in the history of the report. According to the new report, people in the U.S. experienced the most days with “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” air quality due to particle pollution in 25 … Read more

Air pollution increases risk of Alzheimer’s disease developing, new Emory study shows

A new Emory University study has found that adults exposed to high levels of air pollution were at an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. In a study of 1,113 participants between the ages of 45-75 from the Emory Healthy Brain Study, all of whom were from the Atlanta metropolitan area, the researchers found positive biomarkers … Read more

California’s Clean Vehicle Authority Affirmed by Federal Court

WASHINGTON— A federal appeals court today upheld California’s longstanding waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which allows the state to set its own program of clean vehicle regulations. The court dismissed a suit brought by the oil and gas industry allied with corn ethanol and biodiesel growers and 17 Republican-led states. In March 2022 … Read more

IQAir releases world air quality report for 2023

STEINACH, Switzerland (March 19, 2024) – The 6th Annual World Air Quality Report reveals troubling details of the world’s most polluted countries, territories, and regions in 2023. For this year’s report, data from more than 30,000 air quality monitoring stations across 7,812 locations in 134 countries, territories, and regions were analyzed by IQAir’s air quality … Read more

New heavy-duty vehicle standards will make for cleaner truck transport, improve air quality, fight climate change, keep U.S. economy humming

WASHINGTON – Today, March 29, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced final national greenhouse gas pollution standards for heavy-duty vehicles, such as freight trucks and buses, for model years 2027 through 2032. The standards will avoid 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and provide $13 billion in annualized net benefits to society related to … Read more

Will the MTA board’s multi-$B congestion-pricing scheme vastly improve NYC air quality?

The New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) board apparently felt that traffic congestion in the Big Apple is a big deal — that there is just too much of it. The MTA board approved a $15-per-day fee imposed on drivers making weekday drives into the city’s central business district or CBD (below 60th Street) also … Read more

New automobile standards to make for cleaner car travel, improve air quality, protect public health, fight climate change

WASHINGTON – Today, March 20, [2024], the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced final national pollution standards for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027 through 2032 and beyond. These standards will avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon emissions and provide nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society, … Read more

Study shows bias in favor of preserving driving

The researchers from Swansea University and the University of the West of England commissioned an independent polling organisation to ask 2,157 people across the UK a series of questions. Randomly, each person got a set of questions that asked about driving cars or an identical set of questions with one or two words changed so … Read more