Sulfur Dioxide

About 140 schoolchildren and teachers were hospitalized after sulfur dioxide was discharged by a chemical plant in southern China, state media reported Tuesday. The plant, which produces chemical fertilizers in the county of Xifeng in Guizhou province, emitted a "huge amount" of sulfur dioxide, a colorless gas, into the atmosphere Monday, the New China News Agency said, citing a local official.

Don't count on sulfur dioxide to bridle climate change. The ability of that pollutant to reflect the sun is not quite what it was assumed to be, according to new research. Sulfur dioxide -- a common pollutant from burning fossil fuels, contributes to the formation of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, which reflect sunlight. Figuring out just how much this can counteract greenhouse effects of carbon dioxide and other gases has remained one of the bigger uncertainties in climate modeling.

Rejecting the advice of the majority of its scientific advisory panel, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it would not tighten restrictions on sulfur dioxide, a major pollutant primarily associated with coal-burning power plants. The decision brought howls of protest from environmental groups but praise from the electric power industry, which would have faced a bill of between $2 billion and $5 billion had the EPA decided to toughen the rules.

Getting information on volcanic plumes can be perilous work. The unbearable heat. The noxious gas. The jagged terrain. So NASA found a new way to carry out the mission without putting its researchers in danger: drones. PHOTOS: America's drone fleet Last month, a team of NASA researchers   sent three re-purposed military drones with special instruments into a sulfur dioxide plume emitted by  Costa Rica's 10,500-foot Turrialba volcano. The team, led by principal investigator David Pieri of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Caña da - Flintridge,  launched 10 flights involving the small, unmanned spy planes.

The Popocatepetl volcano outside Mexico City has begun emitting unusually large quantities of sulfur dioxide gas, the largest amounts since a cycle of intermittent eruptions began in 1994. Although scientists disagree about the meaning of the gas release, some argue that it may presage a volcanic eruption.

Rejecting the advice of its panel of expert scientific advisers, the Environmental Protection Agency today declined to tighten restrictions on sulfur dioxide, a major pollutant primarily associated with coal-burning power plants. Last year, EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee had strongly recommended tighter restrictions on the pollutant, saying that current rules on sulfur dioxide allowed serious health problems for about 200,000 asthmatics living near power plants.

A pungent odor wafted across a wide area of southern Los Angeles County on Thursday afternoon after a malfunction at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance released sulfur dioxide that drifted eastward. The fumes, which officials said were not hazardous, were reported by residents in Torrance, Carson, Long Beach and Signal Hill. Nearly 60 complaint calls, an unusually high number, were made to the South Coast Air Quality Management District between 2:45 p.m. and 5 p.m., said spokesman Sam Atwood.

Thick, acrid smog envelops Manuel Espejo's withering olive trees. He has pruned them severely in hopes they can be saved. Espejo blames the damage on the fog laden with smoke from the nearby smelter of the Southern Peru Copper Corp., owned by a consortium of Asarco Inc. of New York and three other U.S. firms. Farmers and local officials say sulfur dioxide spewed from the smelter's four towering stacks is choking the once-productive Ilo Valley, 580 miles southeast of Lima.

In the first trade of its kind, Arizona Public Service Co. and New York's Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. have agreed to swap air pollution credits in a deal that could be a model for the way the world reduces emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The agreement, expected to be announced today in Washington, calls for the exchange of credits in carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide between the two utilities.

A surge in toxic gas resulting from a new vent that opened on Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is killing crops on the Big Island and enveloping the area in a haze, sparking health concerns. Although residents of this volcanic island are used to toxic gas, the spike in sulfur dioxide from Kilauea has left people wheezing, and schoolchildren are being kept indoors during recess because of the "vog," or volcanic smog that is covering the area. High gas levels led Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to close for several days in April, forcing the evacuation of thousands of visitors.

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a key Obama administration air pollution rule meant to protect Eastern residents from polluters in neighboring states, saying that the Environmental Protection Agency must grant states more time to implement protections. The ruling by two George W. Bush appointees covers the "good neighbor rule" issued by the EPA in mid-2011 to regulate emissions of pollutants, including sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides, the main ingredients in soot and smog.

Long-abandoned 80-year-old aerial photographs found in a Danish basement document the unexpectedly rapid response of Greenland glaciers to changes in average temperatures, researchers have found. The studies show that landlocked glaciers were melting faster in the 1930s than they are now, but that those extending into the ocean are melting faster now, a team headed by climatologist Jason E. Box of Ohio State University and graduate student Anders A. Bjork of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark reported in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Along with the lazy and often hazy days of summer come some not-so-pleasant health risks from exposure to air pollution. Ed Avol, a professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at USC, has been studying the links between respiratory health and air pollution for 35 years. In this edited interview conducted May 19, Avol spoke about the factors that can lead to poor air quality during the summer months and how people can limit their exposure to pollution. What factors make pollution so severe in the summertime?

The Environmental Protection Agency would require oil- and coal-burning power plants to dramatically reduce hazardous air pollution under an agreement announced Friday that ends a long-standing lawsuit filed by environmentalists. The agreement -- which would probably boost electricity prices but could potentially save thousands of lives -- commits the EPA to set pollution standards by 2011 for the power plants that are responsible for nearly half of all emissions of mercury, which can harm brain development in fetuses and children.

A surge in toxic gas resulting from a new vent that opened on Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is killing crops on the Big Island and enveloping the area in a haze, sparking health concerns. Although residents of this volcanic island are used to toxic gas, the spike in sulfur dioxide from Kilauea has left people wheezing, and schoolchildren are being kept indoors during recess because of the "vog," or volcanic smog that is covering the area. High gas levels led Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to close for several days in April, forcing the evacuation of thousands of visitors.

About 140 schoolchildren and teachers were hospitalized after sulfur dioxide was discharged by a chemical plant in southern China, state media reported Tuesday. The plant, which produces chemical fertilizers in the county of Xifeng in Guizhou province, emitted a "huge amount" of sulfur dioxide, a colorless gas, into the atmosphere Monday, the New China News Agency said, citing a local official.

A new environmental group is trying to clean up the air by buying a government permit allowing it to spew a ton of sulfur dioxide, the key ingredient of acid rain. The National Healthy Air License Exchange bought the permit so no one would ever use it. The nonprofit group is entering the new market of buying U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pollution allowances. "We will spend as much money on these permits as people donate. That's the whole idea here," said David B.

In a move closely observed in Southern California, the Chicago Board of Trade was chosen by the government Friday to run the world's first exchange in pollution credits. CBOT will deal in federal allowances for utilities to emit sulfur dioxide--which causes acid rain--in a plan to cut emissions in half by the year 2000. These rights can be purchased by utilities that might find buying them more cost-effective than spending money directly to reduce their own emissions.

A pungent odor wafted across a wide area of southern Los Angeles County on Thursday afternoon after a malfunction at the Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance released sulfur dioxide that drifted eastward. The fumes, which officials said were not hazardous, were reported by residents in Torrance, Carson, Long Beach and Signal Hill. Nearly 60 complaint calls, an unusually high number, were made to the South Coast Air Quality Management District between 2:45 p.m. and 5 p.m., said spokesman Sam Atwood.

Hidehiko Takahashi finally got to go home last week. After 4 1/2 years of exile in Tokyo, lonely and unable to find work, Takahashi was one of 61 residents of Japan's Miyake Island who jumped at the chance to return as soon as authorities declared it safe again. Safe, if you don't mind living on a 5-mile-wide Pacific island with an active volcano spewing sulfuric gases.