Global Scans · Pollution · Weekly Summary

• [New] Air pollution could still be linked to around 30,000 deaths in 2025, compared to government estimates of between 29,000 and 43,000 equivalent deaths in the UK in 2019. University of Leeds
• [New] The Trump administration will propose scrapping Biden-era climate mandates requiring power plants to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and will also advance a plan to ease limits on mercury and other toxic air pollution. clarity
• [New] Ocean currents may be transporting legacy mercury pollution to the Arctic - posing a long-term threat to ecosystems and human health. ScienceDaily
• [New] The enormous amount of plastic production, its ubiquitous use, and unstructured disposal make them a pervasive pollutant that impacts human health, the environment, and poses an existential threat to the planet. Times Kuwait
• [New] Lack of control and undisciplined disposing of plastic waste has become a serious danger of plastic pollution across the world at present. Global New Light Of Myanmar
• Latinx communities house the heaviest polluting industrial facilities in Houston and, as a result, face the highest potential risk of adverse health effects due to exposure to a multitude of chemicals. Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog
• Air pollution remains the most important environmental threat to health, causing impacts felt throughout the course of people's lives. The Independent
• In the future, the number of lung cancer deaths attributable to air pollution could increase in countries such as India, which currently has some of the highest levels of air pollution. Blogger
• Last week, the EPA announced that it is scrapping the 2024 Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency's regulation requiring existing coal-burning power plants, and future power plants burning natural gas, to begin capturing their carbon dioxide pollution in the 2030s. MCAA
• The Biden-era power plant pollution and mercury rules, combined, could avoid the premature mortality of more than 15,000 people and prevent more than 5.1 million symptomatic asthma incidents, cumulatively through 2050. CBS News
• The current rules on power plant emissions could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, and save $275 billion annually in financial costs associated with pollution. POWER Magazine
• The hazardous chemical pollutants that are recognized as a serious, accumulated pollutants can concentrate to as global threat to human health and ecosystems. Industry Intelligence Inc.
• The global plastic treaty presents a historic opportunity to tackle the plastic pollution and also provide a level playing field to design upstream and downstream policies and measures to address GHG emissions from the primary plastic production globally and at scale. Industry Intelligence Inc.
• The village of Catskill's critical infrastructure projects will safeguard drinking water, reduce pollution in the Hudson River, and enhance resiliency in the face of increasingly destructive storms. Governor Kathy Hochul
• The upcoming final round of negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty is a critical opportunity to call on governments to collaborate in addressing plastics pollution through a full life cycle approach to protect human health. LSHTM
• Scientists have called for a global emergency declaration due to the threat posed by microplastic pollution to life on Earth. IBPS Guide
• Plastic pollution exacerbates the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, threatening food security, livelihoods, and health worldwide. Countercurrents
• One million species are now at risk of extinction, with climate change amplifying other threats like habitat loss and pollution. Climate Cosmos
• The Air Pollution Mitigation Plan 2025, which was unveiled on Tuesday, will focus on the implementation of various strategies to ensure Delhi turns into a pollution-free city. Hindustan Times
• 15 tons of plastic enter the oceans every minute, making plastic pollution the world's single biggest threat to marine life. CruiseMapper
• In 2025 the spotlight is on plastic pollution, one of the most urgent and pervasive threats to ecosystems, biodiversity and human health. Sunday Observer

Last updated: 30 June 2025