The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released a report that discusses the potential impacts of climate change on human health, human welfare, and communities in the U.S.

As policy makers debate what levels of ozone in the air are safe for humans to breathe, studies in mice are revealing that the inhaled pollutant impairs the body’s first line of defense, making it more susceptible to subsequent foreign invaders, such as bacteria.

The recent heat wave gave North Carolina public health officials their first opportunity to use a new monitoring tool to track heat-related visits to hospital emergency departments. What they found will lead them to modify their warnings during future heat waves.

Exposure to particles of depleted uranium (DU), the source of growing international concern as a potential health hazard, may increase the risk of genetic damage and lung cancer, scientists in Maine conclude in a report scheduled for the May 21 issue of ACS' Chemical Research in Toxicology, a monthly journal.