pollution

On the morning news, you see the weather forecast is for high heat, and there is an “excessive heat watch” for later in the week. You were hoping the weather would cool down, but yet another heat wave is threatening human health and increasing the chance of wildfires. On top of these warm days and nights, air quality data has been showing unhealthy levels of pollution. Sound familiar? This scenario is increasingly the new normal in many parts of the world. High heat and air pollution are each problematic for human health, particularly for vulnerable populations such as older adults. But what happens when they hit at the same time? We examined over 1.5 million deaths from 2014 to 2020 registered in California – a state prone to summer heat waves and air pollution from wildfires – to find...

The pandemic is putting America’s air pollution standards to the test as the COVID-19 death toll rises. The U.S. government sets limits on hazardous air pollutants to try to protect public health, but it can be difficult to determine where to draw the line for what is considered “acceptable risk.” Power plants, factories and other pollution sources release hundreds of million pounds of hazardous pollutants into the air every year. As the coronavirus spreads, the pattern of deaths suggests there are serious weaknesses in the current public safeguards. Several studies have explored connections between air pollution and severe cases of the respiratory illnesses. The latest, published on Oct. 26, estimates that about 15% of people who died from COVID-19 worldwide had had long-term exposure ...

Tag: pollution

Heat Waves Plus Air Pollution Can Be A Deadly Combination: The Health Risk Together Is Worse Than Either Alone

Air Pollution And COVID-19 Deaths – Studies Raising Questions About EPA’s ‘Acceptable Risk’