clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Air Quality

Tracking the impacts to air quality from wildfire smoke to air pollution, and what we can do about it.

Why Canada’s wildfires will affect air quality for weeks to come

By Li Zhou

The Air Quality Index and how to use it, explained

By Rebecca Leber

Scientists fear the Western wildfires could lead to long-term lung damage

By Umair Irfan

The orange skies and smoky air from Western wildfires, explained

By Umair Irfan

Air pollution is much worse than we thought

By David Roberts

Gas stoves can generate unsafe levels of indoor air pollution

By David Roberts

The deadly mix of Covid-19, air pollution, and inequality, explained

By Lois Parshley

Study: Small increases in air pollution make coronavirus much more deadly

By Matthew Yglesias

Installing air filters in classrooms has surprisingly large educational benefits

By Matthew Yglesias
Play

What makes Delhi’s air so deadly

By Christina Thornell and Mac Schneider

The law that’s helping fuel Delhi’s deadly air pollution

By Umair Irfan

Air pollution is much more harmful than you know

By Matthew Yglesias

Wildfires are making California’s deadly air pollution even worse

By Umair Irfan

Study: US air pollution deaths increased by 9,700 a year from 2016 to 2018

By Dylan Matthews

Breathing dirty air takes years off people’s lives. This tool shows just how much.

By Umair Irfan

We’ll soon know the exact air pollution from every power plant in the world. That’s huge.

By David Roberts

Trump EPA appointees want more air pollution — that’s a very bad idea

By Matthew Yglesias

As air pollution gets worse, a dystopian accessory is born

By Rose Eveleth

Northern California still has dangerous air quality due to wildfire smoke

By Brian Resnick

Breathing Seattle’s air right now is like smoking 7 cigarettes. Blame wildfires.

By Umair Irfan

The Trump administration is lifting key controls on toxic air pollution

By Umair Irfan

How Delhi became the most polluted city on Earth

By Umair Irfan

Map: see where wildfires are causing record pollution in California

By Casey Miller and Umair Irfan

These countries have the deadliest air pollution. (Surprisingly, Georgia is No. 1.)

By Brad Plumer

Mexico City's adopting a popular method to fight air pollution. It probably won't work.

By Tara Golshan

Meet the scientist connecting the dots between air pollution and dementia

By Clayton Aldern

India's air pollution is so bad it's reducing life expectancy by 3.2 years

By Brad Plumer

Indoor air pollution is now the world's deadliest environmental problem

By Brad Plumer

India has the world's worst air pollution

By Joseph Stromberg

47% of Americans live with unsafe air pollution

By Brad Plumer

Air pollution now kills 7 million people per year

By Brad Plumer

Sign up for the newsletter Today, Explained

Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day.