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WHO: 9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air; 7M deaths per year

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New data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that 9 out of 10 people breathe air containing high levels of pollutants. Updated estimations reveal a death toll of 7 million people every year caused by ambient (outdoor) and household air pollution. Ambient air pollution alone caused some 4.2

Pollution 150
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UNICEF: 300M children worldwide breathing air exceeding WHO pollution guidelines by 6x or more

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Almost one in seven of the world’s children, 300 million, live in areas with the most toxic levels of outdoor air pollution—six or more times higher than international guidelines set by the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO)— according to a new UNICEF report. No society can afford to ignore air pollution.

Pollution 150
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Evidence from glacier ice: Until it was banned, leaded gasoline dominated the anthropogenic lead emissions in South America

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Leaded gasoline was a larger emission source of the toxic heavy metal lead than mining in South America, even though the extraction of metals from the region’s mines historically released huge quantities of lead into the environment, according to a study by researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the University of Bern.

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MIT Report Finds Natural Gas Has Significant Potential to Displace Coal, Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Role in Transportation More Limited

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Natural gas will play a leading role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions over the next several decades, largely by replacing older, inefficient coal plants with highly efficient combined-cycle gas generation, according to a major new interim report out from MIT. The first two reports dealt with nuclear power (2003) and coal (2007).

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Study of lead isotopes provides insight into aerosols transport from Asia to US

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About a third of the airborne lead particles collected at two sites in the San Francisco Bay Area came from Asia, a finding that underscores the far-flung impacts of air pollution and heralds a new way to learn more about its journey across vast distances. The isotopic composition of lead varies over large regions of the Earth’s crust.

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Final session on international mercury convention this week expected to culminate in agreement; UNEP Global Mercury Assessment 2013 finds industrial source Hg emissions may be rising

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Unintentional emission sectors: Coal burning, ferrous- and non-ferrous (Au, Cu, Hg, Pb, Zn) metal production, cement production. Apart from contaminated sites, the mercury pollution detected today is often found in locations very far away from its original source. Source: UNEP. Click to enlarge.

Mercury 262
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Test of Planet-Cooling Scheme Could Start in 2022

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Even less is understood about the potential risks to people and the environment—could the particles deplete the ozone layer, for example, or significantly alter the weather? record levels , mostly because of the coal, oil, and natural gas that gets burned for electricity, heat, and transportation.

Ozone 122