#air-pollution

#air-pollution

New details emerged this week about the massive February fire that erupted at the Martinez Refinery Company and released more than 7,000 gallons of hydrocarbon materials into the air, as officials revealed that oil crews had been using incompatible radio systems that prevented immediate contact with local public safety agencies. While county firefighters arrived on the scene 14 minutes after being notified of a fire at MRC, crews were stalled outside, unable to contact the refinery operators on site - a communication gap that delayed the establishment of a unified command center by nearly two hours.

The agency previously estimated that the higher standards set in 2024 would collectively save Americans $23 billion in fuel costs over the years, or about $600 for each passenger car and light truck owner over the lifetime of their vehicle. The rules were expected to cut down gasoline use by 70 billion gallons through 2050. That would avoid 710 million metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide pollution, equivalent to taking more than 165.6 million gas-guzzling passenger vehicles off the road for a year.

Air pollution has reached "alarming" levels in the Iranian capital, Tehran, leading authorities to close schools and universities and ban truck travel in the region in the latest environmental crisis to strike the Middle East nation. The Air Quality Index in Tehran and surrounding cities on November 29 climbed to between 170 and 200 -- considered to be "unhealthy" for all age groups, Iranian media reported.

Each day, Kiran Kasbe drives a rickshaw taxi through his home neighbourhood of Mahul on Mumbai's eastern seafront, down streets lined with stalls selling tomatoes, bottle gourds and auberginesand, frequently, through thick smog. Earlier this year, doctors found three tumours in his 54-year-old mother's brain. It's not clear exactly what caused her cancer. But people who live near coal plants are much more likely to develop the illness, studies show, and the residents of Mahul live a few hundred metres down the road from one.

Nearly 59,000 Iranians die prematurely due to air pollution in year to March, according to officials. Tehran, Iran Iranians in the capital and many other cities across the country are breathing in toxic fumes as authorities resort to burning dirty fuel to produce electricity and cope with multiple ongoing crises. At 14 power plants, authorities for years have burned mazut, a dark residue of petroleum high in sulphur and other impurities, whenever they run out of natural gas to feed the electricity generators.

Or at least that's what's supposed to happen, as the end result is not really what was suggested in the early concept image sent to other publications. The impression would be of a simmering, partially translucent screen that would be lit from behind. To show off the church through a veil. In fact, it's a painted fabric hung over scaffolding and lit from the outside by a handful of spotlights at the bottom.

Every day. Nearly. Every. Damn. Day. Maybe twice a day. Shooting rigidly awake from blissful sleep into the literal warzone of bleating death engines. My complex is surrounded sometimes by several dudes just running their nozzles over the same already clean patch of grass. It sends my dog into a mania. It sends me into a depression. Running a commercial gas-powered leaf blower for one hour

Only one prosecution for illegal wood burning has been made in the past year despite 15,195 complaints across England, data shows. Additionally, just 24 fines were issued by local authorities between September 2024 and August 2025, responses to freedom of information requests by the campaign group Mums for Lungs revealed. In smoke control areas alone, 9,274 complaints were made a 65% increase on the previous year.

For most New Yorkers, convenience is all we see when we shop online. Click, buy, delivered. But what feels so easy to us is hurting our neighborhoods and the workers in Amazon vests who make it happen. The culprit? Last mile delivery centers, the giant hubs where companies like Amazon sort packages and send them to your doorstep. More and more of these have been popping up in New York.

According to a September 2025 report issued by Comité Cívico del Valle and Earthworks, Controlled Thermal Resources' proposed lithium mining operation, the Hell's Kitchen Lithium and Power Project, will have significant environmental impacts on the surrounding area. The operation, which is still in the beginning stages, will divert at least 6,500 acre-feet of fresh water each year, straining natural resources in an arid region that's already struggling to combat drought.

Residents of Zurich decided Sunday to severely restrict the use of leaf blowers and leaf vacuums. More than 61% of voters supported the restrictive rules, which authorities said would limit noise and dust pollution. Gas-powered leaf blowers and leaf vacuums will be fully banned in Zurich, Switzerland's most populous city. Only electric devices will be used to blow away dirt and debris.

Experiments show that the bacterial component of fine particulate matter has a highly potent inflammatory effect.

As the river flows through Baja California, it takes in untreated sewage and industrial waste from Tijuana, then crosses the U.S.-Mexico border into San Diego County, where beaches are regularly closed because the surf is filled with bacteria from the river. Researchers have now gained new insights into how that water pollution is creating air pollution that besets nearby communities.

Researchers at the California-based non-profit science institute PSE Healthy Energy created a first-of-its-kind interactive map using data from more than 1,300 major methane leaks across the country to model the spread of dangerous air pollutants released during each event. Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. When it leaks from oil and gas infrastructure due to equipment failure, malfunctions, or ruptures, the plume acts as a carrier for a wide array of hazardous co-pollutants,

'Those VOCs coming out of our system are about the equivalent to one passenger car driving down the road,' he said. Bauer also said the chance for an explosion at the facility is extremely low. 'At any one time, we have very little gases in our system,' he said. 'It would be equivalent to camping stove propane. That's your potential of ignition.'

Air pollution from oil and gas activities is responsible for an estimated 91,000 deaths and over 10,000 preterm births in the US each year, according to a new study that examined the impacts of the industry through its lifecycle from extraction to refining to burning fuel in power plants. The study, published August 22 in the journal Science Advances, also attributes an estimated 216,000 annual incidences of US childhood asthma to air pollutants from fossil fuels, as well as over 1,600 lifetime cancers.

Steelworkers and community activists say the Trump administration has put their health at risk by delaying and potentially scrapping pollution monitoring rules meant to protect nearby neighborhoods from dangerous toxins released into the air by the nation's steel and coke plants.