"What surprised me is we are still seeing so many visits to emergency departments associated with very common household cleaning products," Lara McKenzie, Ph.D., stated, emphasizing the ongoing issue despite safety advancements.
Improving indoor air quality is something every household can do. HEPA-based air purifiers - including budget-friendly air purifiers or DIY box-fans with a filter - are incredibly effective at cleaning and lowering particulate levels. That means you don't necessarily need a high-end system to see improvement.
I was that person who only changed their HVAC filter when it looked like it had grown its own ecosystem. Richie Drew, Vice President of Operations at One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning, puts it bluntly: "Dirty filters can reduce airflow, increase dust in your home and strain your heating system." Think about it this way: your HVAC filter is like the bouncer at an exclusive club, except instead of keeping out people without the right shoes, it's blocking dust particles from circulating through your home.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
A potent neurotoxin capable of causing lifelong damage to the lungs, brain, skin and other organs, mercury is strictly regulated worldwide. Children, in particular, can suffer severe developmental impairment when exposed. A trace element that occurs naturally in rocks such as limestone, as well as in coal and crude oil, mercury remains locked underground for millions of years, largely entering the ecological cycle through human activity.
On Friday the Trump administration officially rolled back a series of Biden-era environmental regulations on coal plants, including some intended to clamp down on mercury pollution. Environmental advocacy groups and experts have decried the decision as risking human healthmercury has been shown to cause serious neurological damage, especially in infants. The decision effectively reverts regulations to those set in 2012 by the Obama administration.
Donald Trump's EPA has said that easing the pollution standards for coal plants would alleviate costs for utilities that run older coal plants at a time when demand for power is soaring amid the expansion of datacenters used for artificial intelligence. But environmental groups have said that weakening standards for mercury, a neurotoxin that can impair babies' brain development, and other air toxics will lead to higher health-related costs.
Many human activities - from improper disposal of waste to the degradation of car tyres - release small plastic particles, which have infiltrated the atmosphere, oceans and other ecosystems. These include nanoplastics - particles measuring less than 1 micrometre across - and microplastics, which range from 1 micrometre to around 5 millimetres. They've entered our bodies and brains, and scientists are still working to understand their effects on people's health.
One thing that stood out was the home environment. This was the largest contributor to children's daily particle pollution exposure more than school or commuting. This was mainly due to indoor sources such as wood burning and indoor smoking. Short peaks in particle pollution were linked to home cooking and secondhand tobacco smoke. Home heating with a fire or stove was linked to longer exposures. In some cases, these persisted overnight in children's bedrooms as fires remained lit or smouldering with poor ventilation.
You should buy a dehumidifier. It will almost certainly improve your home environment. Pulling moisture from the air helps banish condensation and mold, making it cheaper and easier to regulate the temperature in your house or apartment. There's a reason the chatter about dehumidifiers has grown so loud and sales are soaring; it's because they work. Whether you've seen a persuasive Reddit thread, a life hack on TikTok, or an expert guide to the best dehumidifiers, the hype is real.
Ethylene oxide was once considered an unremarkable pollutant. The colorless gas seeped from relatively few industrial facilities and commanded little public attention. All that changed in 2016, when the Environmental Protection Agency completed a study that found the chemical is 30 times more carcinogenic than previously thought. The agency then spent years updating regulations that protect millions of people who are most exposed to the compound.
After months of telegraphing the move, the Trump administration today officially repealed the EPA's 2009 " endangerment finding," which found that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane were a threat to human health and welfare. The finding had so far supported the agency's regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Currently, the new rule only applies to car and truck tailpipe emissions, but it's expected to be the first of several similar changes to federal air pollution regulations.