The main type of “bunker” oil for ships is heavy fuel oil, derived as a residue from crude oil distillation. Crude oil contains sulphur which, following combustion in the engine, ends up in ship emissions. Sulphur oxides (SO_x) are known to be harmful to human health, causing respiratory symptoms and lung disease. In the atmosphere, SO_x can lead to acid rain, which can harm crops, forests and aquatic species, and contributes to the acidification of the oceans.

Limiting SO_x emissions from ships will improve air quality and protects the environment.

A new University of Guelph study has discovered why exposure to pesticides increases some people’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

You’ve got a full hour until your next meeting. But you probably won’t make the most of that time, new research suggests.

The number of cases of progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of black lung disease, has been increasing dramatically among coal workers and especially younger workers in central Appalachia. These new findings represent the first-ever documentation of this spike and were presented by Kirsten Almberg, research assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, at the American Thoracic Society meeting in San Diego on May 22.

Over-prescribing has long been thought to increase antibiotic resistance in bacteria. But could much bigger environmental pressures be at play?

While studying the role of climate on the distribution of antibiotic resistance across the geography of the U.S., a multidisciplinary team of epidemiologists from Boston Children’s Hospital found that higher local temperatures and population densities correlate with higher antibiotic resistance in common bacterial strains. Their findings were published today in Nature Climate Change.

Shuttering coal- and oil-fired power plants lowers the rate of preterm births in neighboring communities and improves fertility, according to two new University of California, Berkeley, studies.

The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed more than 11,000 people and was the deadliest outbreak since the discovery of the virus in 1976.

Water pitchers designed to rid water of harmful contaminants are not created equal, new research has found.

A new scientific advisory reaffirms the American Heart Association’s recommendation to eat fish- especially those rich in Omega-3 fatty acids twice a week to help reduce the risk of  heart failure, coronary heart disease, cardiac arrest and the most common type of stroke (ischemic). The advisory is published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.

If you’ve had a minor stroke or a transient ischemic stroke (TIA), taking the clot-preventing drug clopidogrel along with aspirin may lower your risk of having a major stroke within the next 90 days, according to new research published in The New England Journal of Medicine.