A bottle of water can contain a quarter of a million pieces of plastic, a study has found. Scientists have found a new category of plastic pollution called nanoparticles, which are created when microplastics break down even further. It had previously been impossible to tell how many particles smaller than one micron, one seventieth of the width of ...

A growing body of research shows that exposure to air pollution, especially during pregnancy and childhood, may have a negative impact on brain development. Now a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) has found that exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) during the first two years of life is associated with poorer attention capacity in children aged 4 to 8, especially in boys. NO2 is a pollutant that comes mainly from...

If you come across brightly colored, cloth-bound books from the Victorian era, you might want to handle them gently, or even steer clear altogether. Some of their attractive hues come from dyes that could pose a health risk to readers, collectors or librarians.