Air quality, as a phenomenon, refers to the physicochemical state of the atmosphere with respect to the presence, concentration, and reactivity of gaseous and particulate constituents, including criteria pollutants (e.g., ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter) and numerous hazardous air pollutants. It emerges from dynamic interactions among emission sources, atmospheric transport, dispersion, chemical transformation, and removal processes such as deposition and scavenging. Quantification of air quality relies on continuous or episodic monitoring, expressed through pollutant concentrations and composite indices, and is central to studying atmospheric chemistry, exposure assessment, and the impacts of atmospheric composition on biological, ecological, and material systems.
The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering whether facilities that recycle plastic chemically should be held to the same strict air pollution standards as incinerators.
Environment
6 hours ago
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It's a catchy tune, but The Lovin Spoonful's "Summer in the City" doesn't paint the picture of an appealing environment with its description of a sidewalk as "hotter than a match head." New research from Northeastern University ...
Environment
Apr 14, 2026
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Johannesburg's air quality has never really been measured systematically. Like many other cities across the globe, scientists have battled to develop cost-effective monitoring systems that provide accurate real-time data ...
Environment
Apr 9, 2026
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After hours spent in the thick pollution-choking parts of northern Thailand, Pon Doikam gets home and blows her burning nose to find blood clots spattered across the tissue.
Environment
Apr 3, 2026
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Australia marks 50 years of monitoring the world's cleanest air in remote northwest Tasmania at Kennaook / Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station, supporting global efforts to track human-driven changes to the atmosphere.
Environment
Apr 1, 2026
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Emissions of two major pollutants have steadily decreased on Salt Lake City roads over the past two decades, while levels of carbon dioxide emissions, a related gas blamed for climate change, remained steady, according to ...
Environment
Apr 1, 2026
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A review finds that antibiotic resistance genes—capable of undermining modern medicine—can travel through the air across both cities and farmland, and argues that airborne spread represents an overlooked public health risk.
Ecology
Apr 1, 2026
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Cars on the road today are 99% cleaner than they were in 1970. Air quality in the United States is much, much better as a result. In Los Angeles, where I live, lead levels in the air were 50 times higher in the 1970s than ...
Environment
Mar 31, 2026
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New modeling shows almost one in three Americans will routinely breathe air considered unhealthy for sensitive people by the year 2100 due to climate change, a seven-fold increase compared to the turn of the century.
Environment
Mar 31, 2026
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A new study shows that systems designed to capture methane from cow manure, called dairy digesters, are highly effective. But on the rare occasions they fail, the leaks are large enough to offset their climate benefits.
Environment
Mar 31, 2026
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