Air Pollution

When power stations burn coal, a class of compounds called Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, or PAHs, form part of the resulting air pollution. Researchers have found that PAHs toxins degrade in sunlight into ‘children’ compounds and by-products. Some ‘children’ compounds can be more toxic than the ‘parent’ PAHs. Rivers and dams…

An increasing number of Indian customers are willing to buy electric vehicles of late, the government has been making a determined push towards electric mobility. The Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari recently asked the EV manufacturing industry to shift towards indigenous battery technologies while assuring the…

This animation uses data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite to show the monthly average nitrogen dioxide concentrations over China in February 2019, February 2020 and February 2021. Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019-21), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO In early 2020, data from satellites were used to…

Home News Buildings in the central business district of Beijing start to disappear from view during the sandstorm. (Image credit: LEO RAMIREZ/AFP via Getty Images) Beijing has been enveloped in one of its most severe sandstorms in over a decade, which has combined with air pollution to create a toxic,…

Synopsis The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas to tackle pollution in the Delhi airshed came into existence after President Ram Nath Kovind promulgated the ordinance on October 28.APThe move came within days of the government indicating to the Supreme Court that it was…

Despite improvements in recent years, China’s capital is still no stranger to air pollution.  A yellow warning was recently issued by the Beijing government, the third most severe level in a four-tier air pollution warning system. Changping and Haidian districts, in particular, have been badly affected. So what’s behind the…

Smoke bellows from a domestic hearth known as a ‘chulha’ that is fuelled using dung cakes in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, last month. Photo: Bloomberg Cash-strapped New Delhi has halved the amount it sets aside for LPG cooking fuel subsidies, leaving many Indians eyeing a return to smoggier fuels Air…

Researchers examining 14 years of hospital admissions data conclude that the fine particles in wildfire smoke can be several times more harmful to human respiratory health than particulate matter from other sources such as car exhaust. The extensive study was published on March 5 in the journal Nature Communications by…

When Chiara Geroldi takes off her makeup at night, she can see the pollution that comes off with it. Her terrace is full of dust that needs to be swept constantly, and her hair gets dirty faster outside. “Bergamo is a highly polluted area,” said Geroldi, 50, who works as…

IMAGE: The Innsbruck Atmospheric Observatory is located on the roof of the Bruno Sander House at the University of Innsbruck in the center of the Tyrolean capital. view more  Credit: University of Innsbruck The far-reaching mobility restrictions at the beginning of the Corona pandemic in March 2020 created a unique situation…