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Growing up in Shanghai in the early 1990s, Eric Zou remembers the air. "I lived a couple of miles next to a chemical plant and it was just really bad, really foggy," he says. "It's the middle of the day, but you can't see the sun." Intensive industrial activity blanketed many cities in China during the 1990s and 2000s with extremely hazardous air. But Zou, now an environmental economist at the University of Michigan, says that many people didn't really understand this smog as air pollution, or something that could harm them. (Lambert, 9/15)

Air pollution may be affecting more than just heart and lungs. A new analysis of existing research suggests that exposure to polluted air, particularly fine particulate matter known as PM₂.₅, is associated with a higher risk of serious eye diseases, including glaucoma and cataracts. Researchers carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine whether air pollution could be linked to common eye conditions, an area that has received far less attention than the well-established effects of pollution on cardiovascular and respiratory health. (Azzurra Volpe, 9/16)

Exposure to air pollution showed positive associations with risks for death by suicide, attempted suicide, and suicidal ideation, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis. (Monaco, 9/16)

Up to a quarter of all plastic flowing from rivers into the ocean are microplastics — delivering more than 260,000 metric tons in 2022, according to a new study published last week in Science. The staggering amount suggested there was more plastic pollution carried by rivers than previously estimated, researchers said. Almost all — 96 percent — of the pollution was from rivers in developing countries, with more than half it coming from Southeast and East Asia, according to the study. (Goitia-Doran, 9/17)

For decades, the Mexican authorities have sacrificed a rural valley to flush away the capital’s waste and power the economy. Now, local communities are paying for that decision — often with peoples’ lives. (Mega, 9/17)

The U.S. says its sanctions are not aimed at depriving Cuba of essential goods. Thousands of stranded shipping containers tell a different story. (Augustin and Robles, 9/17)

Fiji has declared a national crisis amid an extraordinary rise of H.I.V. cases, with health officials raising the alarm about an epidemic that has emerged alongside an increase in injectable drug use. ... UNAIDS, a United Nations program, said in a statement on Wednesday that it was “one of the sharpest increases in new H.I.V. infections globally.” Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of UNAIDS, added that Fiji’s epidemic was “a stark reminder to the world that AIDS is not over.” (Irwin, 9/16)

The European Union outlined plans on Wednesday to restrict social media use for children under 15, an aggressive step to curtail access to apps like TikTok and Instagram across the 27-nation bloc. (Satariano and Smialek, 9/16)

Women with an aggressive form of breast cancer in England will finally get access to a drug from AstraZeneca Plc and Daiichi Sankyo Co. on the National Health Service, after an agreement was reached with the regulator. About 1,000 women a year will be eligible for Enhertu, which is approved to be used on patients whose cancer cells have lower levels of a protein called HER2. Many patients have died since the medicine was first rejected by the drug price regulator in 2024, according to campaign group Breast Cancer Now. (Furlong, 9/17)

The number of people aged 100 or older in Japan surpassed a record 100,000 this year, the latest government figures show, underscoring the country’s rapidly aging and declining population. The Health and Welfare Ministry statistics released Tuesday show Japan now has 107,677 centenarians, up 7,914 from the previous year and exceeding the 100,000 mark for the first time. Nearly 88% of them are women. (Yamaguchi, 9/16)