CARTAGENA, Colombia – From toxic methane flares in the Amazon rainforest to the death of a nine-year-old girl from London smog, the second WHO Conference on Air Pollution and Health opened Tuesday  with a series of emotional testimonials on the deadly effects of smog.  Behind the human stories, however, stands  a mounting array of evidence […] Continue reading ->
CARTAGENA, Colombia – A small group of climate pollutants– including the air pollutants black carbon, methane, and ozone – are responsible for nearly half of global temperature increases to date.  Reducing these emissions, which only remain in the atmosphere for a few weeks to decades, could serve as the “emergency brake” critical to halting runaway […] Continue reading ->
Many glaciers in western Canada, the United States, Scandinavia, Central Europe, the Caucasus, New Zealand and the tropics will not survive the 21st century – and this will have a “dramatic impact” on mountain communities and hundreds of millions of people who depend on water that originates from these glaciers. These are the key findings […] Continue reading ->
The US Environmental Protection Agency announced it would seek to roll back 31 climate, air and water pollution, and emissions regulations, declaring this is the “biggest deregulatory action” in US history. Leading environmental health voices say that rolling back pollution and climate regulations will inextricably harm the public’s health, though the Trump administration asserts that […] Continue reading ->
Tanzania has extinguished a deadly outbreak of Marburg virus, but elsewhere across Africa, an alarming surge of health crises continue to unfold – including expanding mpox infections in Uganda, a cholera outbreak in Angola and a first-ever cholera case in neighbouring Namibia. The Marburg virus outbreak in Tanzania has officially ended, Tanzanian health authorities declared […] Continue reading ->
A four-year, multi-country trial measuring health impacts of reduced indoor air pollution due to the shifting of households from biomass to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) has yielded  mixed results – defying expectations that reduced indoor air pollution would yield significant health benefits. The study of 3,200 households in four Asian, African and Latin America countries […] Continue reading ->
Chad and Bangladesh  ranked as the most polluted countries in 2024, while Delhi, India was the most polluted capital city, according to the 2024 World Air Quality report produced by the Swiss-based IQAir.  But only seven countries worldwide met WHO air quality guidelines and Africa’s pollution levels remains under-reported. Pollution monitoring also fell victim to […] Continue reading ->