Health, Air Pollution | featured news

A group of Utah doctors is declaring a health emergency over the Salt Lake City area's lingering air pollution problem. Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment planned to deliver a petition Wednesday demanding immediate action by elected officials. The group wants Gov. Gary Herbert and mayors of northern Utah cities to cut the pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized a rule that for the first time requires U.S. coal and oil-fired power plant operators to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.

A soak in a steamy tub, surrounded by candles sure seems like a great way to unwind. But new research suggests that burning certain kinds of candles may generate indoor air pollutants.

Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain.

The results are in a study of 249 children of New York City women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during the last few months of pregnancy. They lived in mostly low-income neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. They had varying levels of exposure to typical kinds of urban air pollution, mostly from car, bus and truck exhaust.

Millions living in nearly 600 neighborhoods across the U.S. are breathing concentrations of toxic air pollutants that put them at a much greater risk of contracting cancer, according to new EPA data.