Air

"Air pollution is killing about 4,000 people in China a day, accounting for 1 in 6 premature deaths in the world's most populous country, a new study finds."

"On Sunday morning, hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic gas were accidentally released from the Shell Oil facility in Deer Park [Texas]."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to fix by this spring the problem that caused the Supreme Court to rule against its major air pollution regulation in July."

"The air in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, is expected to clear up now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized agreements with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and port terminal operators that will cut air pollution caused by idling diesel trucks at the port."

EPA is trying to phase out the soil fumigant methyl bromide, on which the commercial strawberry crop has been dependent. Methyl bromide damages the ozone layer of the atmosphere. But the effort to find an adequate substitute has scientists scrambling.

"The outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the South Bronx is the largest in New York City history, officials said Tuesday, as they announced new measures to fight a disease that had claimed the lives of seven people and sickened more than 80 others."

"A device commonly used to measure the methane that leaks from industrial sources may greatly underestimate those emissions, said an inventor of the technology that the device relies on."

"Barack Obama will use all of his powers – including his veto – to defend his plan to fight climate change, the White House said, on the eve of new rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants."

"A conservation group found 36 U.S. national parks had moderate or worse levels of ozone pollution in a report card released on Tuesday, with four parks in California receiving the worst grades for health effects."

"A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday mostly upheld a major federal environmental regulation requiring some states to limit pollution that contributes to unhealthy air in neighboring states."