Twelve UK cities and urban areas may have to ban or fine heavily polluting traffic from their centres within months after the European commission refused to allow Britain more time to reduce danger

Diesel fumes cause lung cancer, the World Health Organisation declared Tuesday, and experts said they were more carcinogenic than secondhand cigarette smoke.

The WHO decision, the first to elevate diesel to the “known carcinogen” level, may eventually affect some American workers who are heavily exposed to exhaust. It is particularly relevant to poor countries, where trucks, generators, and farm and factory machinery routinely belch clouds of sooty smoke and fill the air with sulfurous particulates.

Real time data to be displayed near monitoring stations

The State Pollution Control Board hopes to set up continuous (online) ambient air and water quality monitoring stations along the Periyar River within a month. The objective of the initiative is to scientifically analyse the source of pollution of the river besides ascertaining those responsible for such incidents. Board Chairman K. Sajeevan told The Hindu that work on establishing the stations is fast progressing. “We expect to complete the work within a month. All analysers will work round-the-clock. Real time data will be displayed at prominent public places near each station, he said.

With car ridership set to boom by 106 per cent, Delhi's air pollution and congestion crisis is bound to worsen, warns a survey by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

“At this rate, the Capital will be gasping for breath by 2021”

Delhi's air quality is worsening and if urgent action is not taken we will have a serious problem at hand, warns Centre for Science and Environment's latest report card. “The summer of 2012 is a grim reminder of the severe and worsening multi-pollutant crisis. CSE's analysis of the official air quality data shows that ozone, the new predator in town, has exceeded standards on all days in May and most days in April this year in areas including Civil Lines and the airport and on 80 per cent days in residential colonies including R. K. Puram,” notes the report.

European courts may be asked to decide whether Britain acted illegally by proposing not to clean up air pollution in British cities for over a decade after an appeal was dismissed.

The Government will face a fresh hearing in the Court of Appeal tomorrow (May 30) over claims it has failed to bring illegal air pollution levels under control.

Sulphur dioxide, pretty notorious as a gaseous pollutant, may potentially have a role to play in tackling tuberculosis (TB), according to a recent paper by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune. Their findings, potentially, open the door to the development of various sources of sulphur dioxide in the treatment of the infectious disease that affects millions globally every year.

Research into novel approaches to treat TB is driven by the need to tackle multi-drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the pathogenic bacterial species that causes the disease

A harried parent called a few weeks ago. She wanted to know if pollution levels in Delhi were bad and, if so, how bad. The answer was simple and obvious. But why did she need to know that? Her daughter’s prestigious school (which I shall leave unnamed) had sent a circular to parents saying the school authorities planned to shift to air-conditioned buses because they were worried about air pollution. She wanted to know if this was the right decision.

My answer changed. The fact is that pollution levels are high and we need to find ways to bring them under control. But this does not mean the rich can find ways to avoid breathing the air so as to keep pollution at bay.