Three counties in New Jersey are under an air quality alert due to smoke from the massive wildfire ripping through Ocean County. As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, southern coastal areas of New Jersey were listed in the “red zone” with an air quality index of 173, according to AirNow. When AQI values are above 100, air quality is considered unhealthy. As a result, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection declared an Air Quality Action Day, called when the Air Quality Index gets into unhealthy ranges. The air quality alert...

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Nearly half of the U.S. population is living with dangerous levels of air pollution, according to a new report from the the American Lung Association. The organization's 2025 "State of the Air" report reveals that 156 million Americans resided in areas that received poor grades for either ozone or particle pollution — 25 million more people than last year. The report graded communities based on levels of ground-level ozone (smog), year-round fine...

An air quality alert was reported by the National Weather Service on Wednesday at 9:24 a.m. in effect until Thursday at midnight for Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May and Burlington counties. "The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has declared an Air Quality Action Day for Fine Particulates, until midnight tonight. This is the result of the ongoing wildfires across eastern Ocean County NJ," states the weather service. Guidance for air quality alerts: Insights from the weather service When an air quality alert is in effect, following the weather service guidance...

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake struck the New South Wales Hunter Valley early on Wednesday morning, jolting awake residents across a wide swathe of eastern Australia, including parts of Sydney and Canberra. The quake hit at 2.55am local time on Wednesday near the town of Singleton, 200km north of Sydney, at a shallow depth of 10km, according to Geoscience Australia. Its preliminary magnitude was measured at 5.1 but was later revised down to 4.6. No injuries or serious property damage was reported but some 3,800 people reported feeling the tremors from...

Telemedicine use in 2023 reduced monthly carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of up to 130,000 gas operated vehicles, suggesting it could have a positive effect on climate change, new UCLA-led research finds. The findings, to be published April 22 in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Managed Care, suggest that telemedicine could have a modest but noticeable impact on the environment by decreasing the number of vehicles traveling to and from medical appointments. They could also have policy implications, said co-senior author Dr. John N.

Climate tipping points pose grave risks to human health—and, unsurprisingly, approaching them while tipsy only makes the fallout more blistering, according to a case study in the New England Journal of Medicine. In this week's issue, NEJM spotlights the effects of the climate crisis on clinical health with a series of case studies. One is the searing story of an inebriated gentleman who regrettably took a one-minute walk while barefoot during the unprecedented 2021 Northwest heat dome. The man walked across asphalt during the extreme weather, in which air temperatures...