Iowa City Air Quality Coalition

04/01/2026

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/31/health/phthalates-infant-death-prematurity-wellness

A chemical used in toys and consumer products is linked to thousands of infant deaths and millions of preterm births worldwide, a new study found.

01/07/2026

The bad news keeps on coming…

In government records that have flown under the radar, the EPA is questioning its legal authority to revise pollution rules more than once when new science shows unacceptable health risks.

12/26/2025

This is the regulatory world we live in, currently:

The president exempted a copper smelter in Arizona from air-quality rules. An E.P.A. official guided the company that sought the exemption, emails show.

12/25/2025

Not good.

Water treatment and landfill companies given chance to make case that EPA rules should not apply to them

12/15/2025

Not good news, especially now that Oral B/ P&G is expanding onto the Kirkwood site.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1216404463682343&set=a.386725536650244&type=3

In a highly unusual move, the EPA is revising an assessment of the health dangers posed by formaldehyde, a widespread pollutant that causes far more cancer than any other chemical in the air.

Read more: https://propub.li/4pOXe04

08/15/2025

Iowa does not regulate odors at the state level. The EPA report was completed after the 2024, so it might be taken with a grain of salt. The current administration has little to no interest in regulatory enforcement.

Air quality tests conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have identified the source of an odor that some Iowa City residents feared was causing harm to their health.

08/08/2025

Not good news.

In its first six months, the Trump administration has filed 11 civil cases against polluters compared with the Biden administration’s 30.

07/21/2025

H/t to Alt Natl Parks:

“The Trump administration is rolling back Clean Air Act protections for a wide range of industries, including oil refineries, coal plants, chemical manufacturers, and medical device sterilizers. On Thursday, the White House announced that over 100 facilities will no longer have to comply with certain pollution limits, regulations that were specifically designed to cut emissions of hazardous, cancer-causing chemicals. One of the scrapped rules had been projected to lower cancer risks by up to 96% for people living within a six-mile radius of affected chemical plants.”

05/30/2025

Important report on Cancer in Iowa:

05/23/2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/climate/cancer-alley-air-pollution-free-speech.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Community groups are fighting an unusual Louisiana law that restricts how they use data from air-quality monitors, saying it violates free speech.

04/23/2025

https://www.ehn.org/health-risks-of-air-pollution

Traditional regulatory approaches to analyzing health impacts from air pollution consider each chemical individually, rather than cumulatively. The new method, developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, accounts for exposures to multiple chemicals by adding together their impacts to all p...

04/22/2025

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/climate/epa-cuts-forever-chemicals-grants.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

The cancellations, set to apply to pending and active grants, also affect research into “forever chemicals” contaminating the food supply.