Air Pollution

New Hampshire officials say air pollution concentrations have reached unhealthy levels in southwestern parts of the state. The Department of Environmental Services says a combination of pollution transported from surrounding areas, cold, calm air and temperature inversions limiting air movement is causing the problem Friday. The department says much of the pollution is emitted from heating devices, especially wood-burning stoves and boilers. It gets trapped and concentrated near the ground.

WASHINGTON - The Institute of Medicine, which advises the United States government on health issues, will examine whether the process of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from rock "poses potential health challenges," an official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. Health concerns related to fracking, in which millions of gallons of chemically treated water are forced underground to break up rock and free gas, include the potential for water contamination and air pollution.

BEIJING - The Chinese capital was shrouded yesterday in thick gray smog, just 12 days before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. One specialist warned that drastic measures enacted to cut vehicle and factory emissions in the city were no guarantee that skies would be clear during competitions. The pollution was among the worst seen in Beijing in the past month, despite traffic restrictions enacted a week ago that removed half of the city's vehicles from roadways.

Car exhaust and other air pollution, even at levels considered safe by federal regulations, may substantially increase the risk of a stroke, a research team from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center reported yesterday. After reviewing the medical records of more than 1,700 stroke patients in the Boston area over 10 years, the researchers found a 34 percent increase in the risk of ischemic strokes on days with moderate air quality, compared with days when the air was rated good by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

WASHINGTON -- Many of the nearly 350 US counties in violation of federal air quality standards because of smog or soot are not expected to achieve compliance without more local pollution controls, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday. Mike Leavitt, EPA administrator, told a Senate hearing that "well over half" of the counties are expected to be in compliance by 2015 because of tighter controls on diesel trucks and power plants. But the agency's preliminary estimates indicate that dozens of counties would not be compliant by then and that some areas...

WHO Dr. Megan Sandel WHAT Sandel, an associate professor of pediatrics and public health at Boston Medical Center, is an expert on asthma and air pollution. Q. What is the connection between air pollution and health? A. There's a lot of evidence around how pollution affects respiratory health and cardiovascular health, particularly for vulnerable groups like children, people with asthma, or elders. Q. What can people do to protect themselves? A. I always talk about being able to moderate exposures as much as possible.

CHICAGO - Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain. The results are in a study of 249 children of New York City women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during the last few months of pregnancy. They lived in mostly low-income neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. They had varying levels of exposure to typical kinds of urban air pollution, mostly from car, bus, and truck exhaust.

Not even close. Obviously, it's nicer to jog where there is little or no vehicular traffic. But the air along the Charles River is not as bad as you might think, said Douglas Dockery, chairman of the department of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health. The biggest pollution hazard along roadways comes not from gasoline-burning cars but from trucks that burn diesel fuel, said Bruce Hill, a senior scientist and air quality specialist at the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit, Boston-based group dedicated to...

‘Walkability' counts Why does it matter that it's easy to walk in a community? Walk Score, a website that ranks the "walkabilty" of cities and neighborhoods around the country, gives some reasons: ► The more people walk, the less they drive, reducing air pollution. ► The average resident of a walkable neighborhood weighs 6 to 10 pounds less than someone who lives in a less walker-friendly neighborhood. ► A 2009 study by CEOS for Cities found that houses in more walkable neighborhoods sold for $4,000 to $34,000 more than similar homes in...

Exxon Mobil Corp. and two affiliates have agreed to pay a $2.9 million civil penalty to resolve allegations that the company violated Massachusetts air pollution laws, the attorney general said yesterday. The judgment filed in Suffolk Superior Court requires Exxon Mobil to reduce gasoline vapor emissions by updating and improving air pollution control systems at its bulk gasoline terminals in Everett and Springfield. “Big oil can no longer marginalize environmental compliance while increasing their gasoline sales and distribution in Massachusetts,’’ said Laurie Burt, commissioner of the...

New York and 10 other states filed a lawsuit Friday designed to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue new regulations on soot pollution. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan comes after the federal agency failed to meet a statutory October deadline to revise soot standards. Soot is produced by diesel vehicles and power plants and has been linked to chronic respiratory disease, impaired lung function, heart disease and asthma.

New Hampshire officials say air pollution concentrations have reached unhealthy levels in southwestern parts of the state. The Department of Environmental Services says a combination of pollution transported from surrounding areas, cold, calm air and temperature inversions limiting air movement is causing the problem Friday. The department says much of the pollution is emitted from heating devices, especially wood-burning stoves and boilers. It gets trapped and concentrated near the ground.

WHO Dr. Megan Sandel WHAT Sandel, an associate professor of pediatrics and public health at Boston Medical Center, is an expert on asthma and air pollution. Q. What is the connection between air pollution and health? A. There's a lot of evidence around how pollution affects respiratory health and cardiovascular health, particularly for vulnerable groups like children, people with asthma, or elders. Q. What can people do to protect themselves? A. I always talk about being able to moderate exposures as much as possible.

Experts say that a proposed $24,000 federal budget cut could hamper Vermont scientists' ability to measure and track airborne pollutants from the Midwest. For the last 20 years the Atmospheric Integrated Research Monitoring Network on the Underhill side of Mount Mansfield has helped scientists in the U.S. and Canada map industrial plumes that cause acid rain and nutrient pollution. University of Vermont Professor Lawrence Forcier tells the Burlington Free Press ( http://bfpne.ws/tM6ZNy)

By Matt Byrne, Town Correspondent The final meeting of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's visioning process for the Mystic Valley Parkway station on the Green Line Extension will be held tonight at Medford City Hall. The planning council is expected to present the final version of the group's vision for the area, culminating a months-long process of community workshops and citizen input. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., according to the MAPC.

‘Walkability' counts Why does it matter that it's easy to walk in a community? Walk Score, a website that ranks the "walkabilty" of cities and neighborhoods around the country, gives some reasons: ► The more people walk, the less they drive, reducing air pollution. ► The average resident of a walkable neighborhood weighs 6 to 10 pounds less than someone who lives in a less walker-friendly neighborhood. ► A 2009 study by CEOS for Cities found that houses in more walkable neighborhoods sold for $4,000 to...

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled House yesterday took another swipe at the government's attempt to control air pollution, passing a bill that would delay or scrap rules to reduce mercury and other harmful air emissions. The 249 to 169 vote sent the legislation to the Senate, where Environment and Public Works Committee chairman Barbara Boxer vowed to defeat it. "Let me be clear: This is a train we must stop," the California Democrat said after House passage. "I will do everything I can to block the rollbacks being pushed by House Republicans and polluters.

MOUNT TAMALPAIS STATE PARK, Calif. -- On a mountaintop overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Steven Cliff collects evidence of an industrial revolution taking place thousands of miles away. The tiny, airborne particles Cliff gathers at an air-monitoring station just north of San Francisco drifted over the ocean from coal-fired power plants, smelters, dust storms, and diesel trucks in China and other Asian countries. Researchers say the environmental impact of China's breakneck economic growth is being felt well beyond its borders.

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled House yesterday took another swipe at the government's attempt to control air pollution, passing a bill that would delay or scrap rules to reduce mercury and other harmful air emissions. The 249 to 169 vote sent the legislation to the Senate, where Environment and Public Works Committee chairman Barbara Boxer vowed to defeat it. "Let me be clear: This is a train we must stop," the California Democrat said after House passage. "I will do everything I can to block the rollbacks being pushed by House Republicans and polluters.