• Air

Fossil Fuel Pollution Kills Nearly 9 Million Each Year

• #COVID
• air pollution
• climate change
• fossil fuels
• greenhouse gasses
• PM2.5

New research suggests that the effects of pollution from burning coal and gasoline may be even more deadly than many other health threats.  A new study has found that 8.7 million people around the world die each year from breathing polluted air caused by fossil fuels.

Why this Matters: This study — published in Environmental Research, as a collaboration between researchers from Harvard University, the University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester, and University College London— suggests that fossil fuel pollution accounted for 18% of total deaths in 2018.

• Air

EPA Refuses to Tighten Air Quality Standard, Overruling Agency Scientists’ Recommendation

• air pollution
• conservation
• COVID-19
• environment
• PM2.5
• science
• soot

On Tuesday, the Trump administration proposed to leave in place the national ambient air quality standards for Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) or soot, even though the Agency’s science staff recommended tightening it, saying that a tougher standard would save 12,000 lives each year.

Why This Matters:  Industry groups such as the American Petroleum Institute and the Chamber of Commerce “cheered” the decision saying the air in the U.S. is clean enough.

• Air

US Air Pollution Causes More Than 100,000 Premature Deaths

• air pollution
• particulate matter
• PM2.5
• soot
• toxic

A new study by the National Academies of Science published on Monday concluded that in 2011, the finest scale particulate matter air pollution (PM2.5)  caused 107,000 premature deaths in the U.S. and cost the economy nearly $900 million dollars.  The study’s authors, using data from the Environmental Protection Agency, calculated location-specific estimates of the damage […]