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Following a December 2008 USA Today report on outdoor air pollution at hundreds of schools, EPA began a monitoring process. Final reports for 21 (of the small number of schools selected) have now been released; the results are mixed.

If EPA's health-based primary standard is reduced from its current level of 75 parts per billion to 60 ppb, which is the low end of what the agency's science advisors have recommended, about 67% of the US population would live in monitored counties that would be out of compliance.

Both polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (primarily from combustion sources) and pesticides are pervasive in 8 diverse US national parks, according to two Environmental Science & Technology studies by international teams of university and government agency researchers.

The University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute's "Toxic 100 Air Polluters" indicates 4 of the worst 12 air polluters are petroleum companies. You can use this resource to look at other groupings of companies, such as utilities, or drug, chemical, or metals manufacturers, or to look at any of the individual companies.

The proposed air toxics standards cover emissions from three types of combustion sources and address emissions of mercury, cadmium, dioxin, furans, formaldehyde, hydrochloric acid, and other pollutants.

Beef and pork factory farms are exempt from federal requirements to report their greenhouse gas emissions but are okay with accepting federal subsidies to capture their methane emissions and turn them into energy.

Many story leads are tucked away in this 196-page report: recession impacts from drops in extraction and consumption, increases in importation of key materials, insights on stories related to climate change and air pollution, and much more.