Environmental toxicology

New research this week is the latest to show that microplastics have polluted just about everywhere on Earth. Scientists discovered plastic particles in cloud samples collected from atop a mountain in Eastern China. The team also found evidence from lab experiments that these microplastics could potentially affect cloud formation and the weather, though more data will be needed to understand exactly how.Coastal Animals Are Thriving on Plastic Pollution Out in the Pacific Ocean | Extreme EarthThe study was led by…

Every day, people all across the world breathe in poison. Outdoor air pollution kills an estimated 7 million people annually, according to the World Health Organization. Most of that toxic, deadly pollution is fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, which comes from industry, agriculture, burning fossil fuels, dust storms, and other sources.Inhaling PM2.5 is known to have big health consequences, and research has linked long-term exposure to lung problems, heart disease, cancer, premature death, and mental health…

US Steel Clairton Works in Clairton, Pennsylvania.Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.What do you think of when you hear the word “pollution” — a city smothered in smog, a beach strewn with trash, factories pumping out dark clouds?Now try to picture “carbon emissions.” See anything? Probably not, since carbon dioxide is invisible.This simple exercise helps explain the growing popularity of once-rare phrases like “carbon…

An apparent wave of pollution has killed thousands of fish in southwestern Poland, according to a Thursday press statement from the Polish Waters ministry. The trouble seemed to start in a town called Oława but has spread along the rover Oder to Frankfurt, Germany more than 200 miles away.“We are dealing with a gigantic and outrageous ecological catastrophe,” head of Polish Waters Przemyslaw Daca said in a news conference, according to a report from the Associated Press.In Frankfurt, where the Oder flows along the border…