Air quality

In 2016 researchers found unusually high levels of magnetite in a number of human brain samples. The tiny toxic particle can be found in modern urban air pollution and is now suspected to be one environmental contributor to Alzheimer's disease.

No-one enjoys idling in peak-hour traffic, yet scientists have identified that a blood pressure spike during it doesn't come from frustration but from ultrafine particles flowing into the car. And the average 4.5 mm Hg spike lasts for an entire day.

New research has linked long-term exposure to fine particle air pollution, whether at home or work, to an increased risk of breast cancer. It adds to mounting evidence about the dangers of air pollution and highlight the need to reduce it.

While it's important to track and quantify airborne pollutants, most gas sensors are located at ground level, not up where the pollutants spread. A new lab-on-a-drone system is designed to address that limitation, by taking the tech to the sky.

A new study has found that we’re doing something right when it comes to air pollution. An analysis of global data has found that exposure to fine particulate matter, a leading environmental health risk, has fallen.

It’s well established that any air pollution is hazardous, with it claiming some 6.5 million lives around the world each year. But one type of emission is being increasingly linked to age-related dementia, and it’s also surging due to wildfires.

Researchers have demonstrated how effective plants are at ridding the air in your home, school, or workplace of toxic, potentially cancer-causing pollutants, providing a sustainable, low-cost way of ensuring that the air you breathe is cleaner.

New research out of China has unveiled a concerning link between air pollution exposure and heart rhythm disturbances, further demonstrating the dangers of unclean air and the urgent need for global efforts to improve air quality.

NASA has launched a high-resolution instrument to monitor air quality across the entire continental United States, providing data on everything from rush hour pollution to the effects of fertilizer application.

Although the air in our homes or workplaces may seem OK, it might contain harmful compounds emitted by materials like particleboard and carpeting. New research suggests that we may soon be able to tell if that is the case, using tiny glowing worms.

By exposing healthy adults to diesel fumes before having their brain activity imaged in an fMRI machine, researchers have shown how traffic pollution can impair brain function, offering evidence of the connection between air quality and cognition.

It's assumed that as we get older our health will deteriorate. Our bodies age, wrinkles form, metabolism slows, and our immune system weakens. But how much of what we consider to simply be natural aging is actually due to preventable environmental factors?