As part of his “Toxic America” series, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been investigating schools, and his findings are not good. Research suggests that at least one-third of U.S. schools have mold, dust and other indoor air quality issues that can cause asthma in students and staff. It gets worse: According to Healthy Schools Network, as many as 5 million U.S. children may be attending K-12 schools where poor air quality, hazardous chemicals and other unhealthy conditions can make everyone sick. And it isn’t just indoor air quality that’s the problem — the outdoor air at many schools is toxic enough to cause asthma and cancer.

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Post tags: Air quality, asthma, cancer, chemicals, dust, green kids, Inhabitots, kids, mold, parenting, school, toxins

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Post tags: Air quality, birch, Danish design, Denmark, Denmark Prefab, flexible interiors, green materials, local materials, natural light, Prefab Housing, skylight, small house, sustainable wood

The Obama Administration is continuing its maddeningly anti-environmental course by blocking the EPA from enforcing stricter rules for air quality. Just last week, the administration approved the plan for the Keystone XL pipeline, and now Obama himself has stepped in to thwart the EPA’s plan to strengthen ground-level ozone (smog) standards, which could have protected us against health-threatening pollution. The President cited the recovering economy as his main reason for abandoning the regulations, saying that it would impose to heavy a burden on the industry — a fact that many environmentalists have been quick to point out is not entirely true.

Read the rest of Obama Abandons EPA’s Stricter Smog Regulations

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Post tags: Air quality, air quality rules, air quality usa, environmental protection agency, epa, ground level ozone, obama administration, obama smog, obama smog regulations, obama smog rules, smog, smog regulations, smog rules

Air Products, one of the leaders in hydrogen fueling technology, have just announced the official opening of the world’s first fuel cell and hydrogen energy station in Orange County, California. Inaugurated today, the station is unlike any other built before, in that it draws from a nearby wastewater plant to not only sustain itself, but to also power hydrogen vehicles.

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Post tags: air products, Air quality, alternative fuels, hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen power, orange county, wastewater, wastewater recycling

Ozone is a ground-level air pollutant that plagues cities, especially those overrun by cars. But now Toyota’s Central Research and Development labs have announced the development of a material that removes 95% of unreacted ozone from the air when used in an ozone filter. The material is called mesoporous two-line ferrihydrite or M2LFh (say that ten times fast) and is porous, which gives it a large inner surface area with numerous iron sites near the surface for absorbing ozone. What does all this mean? The car you drive around could actually clean the air instead of adding to air pollution.

Read the rest of Toyota’s Breakthrough M2LFh Technology Will Remove 95% of Ozone from the Air

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Post tags: air pollution, Air quality, alternative transportation, green automotive design, green transportation, ozone filter, ozone removal, Toyota mesoporous two-line ferrihydrite, Toyota ozone

Read the rest of Edinburgh’s Gorgeous John Hope Garden Gateway Wins 2011 Sustainability Award

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Post tags: "wind power", Air quality, Architecture, biomass power, biomimicry, Botanical, Daylighting, Edward Cullinan Architects, fresh air, green interiors, green materials, green resources, green technology, local materials, photovoltaic panels, rainwater collection system, renewable energy, scotland botanic gardens, scottish timber, social design, Solar Power, solar thermal, Sustainable Building, water issues

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Post tags: Air quality, Apartment-Factory, Architecture, great wall of china, green roof apartments, green roof designs, hakka houses, korean architecture, seoul architecture, Urban design

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Post tags: Air quality, Architecture, double glazing, dutch design, flax insulation, green interiors, green materials, Green Real Estate, green renovation, green technology, heat pump, One Planet Architecture Institute, Recycled Materials, renewable energy, solar panels, Solar Power, stucco, Sustainable Building, zecc architects, Zero energy

Read the rest of Britomart’s Leafy Three Storey Green Wall is New Zealand’s Largest

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Post tags: Air quality, Britomart, eco design, Green Building, green design, Green Walls, Landscape Architecture, Living Walls, maori patterns, Natural Habitats, New Zealand, Sustainable Building, voc

Despite its strict tailpipe emission standards, California is still the state with the dirtiest air due to its geography that traps pollution and the fact that it is the state with the largest number of cars on the road. A new report by the American Lung Association states that if three-quarters of California’s cars were electric by 2025, it would potentially reduce the incidence of asthma attacks and pollution-linked chronic lung illnesses by up to 70 percent.

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Post tags: Air quality, alternative transportation, American Lung Association, california air pollution, electric car, ev, green transportation, lung illness

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", "sustainable development", Air quality, Coral House, eco building, geneva, geothermal heating and cooling, Group 8 architects, Minergie, shades, solar gain, Sustainable Building, Switzerland

Read the rest of Inhabitat Tours the Incredible Healthy Home 2010!

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Post tags: 2010, Air quality, Architecture, chicago, Eco, green, healthyhome, home, house designer, illinois, interior design, low VOC, natural, Organic, Palatine Village, ShowHouse, Sustainable, tour

We’ve seen wallpaper that monitors your environment and wallpaper that tells a scientific story, but now there’s even wallpaper that cleans the air! That’s right, Blücher Technologies has come up with a “breathable, glass fiber/polyester nonwoven paper-like covering” with absorbents that capture icky toxins like PCB, PCP, pesticides, and radon. The air purifying wallpaper is a smart way to get around “sick building syndrome” if you’re doing a retrofit of a space that was built in an era where “no-VOC” didn’t mean diddly to anyone.

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Post tags: air, air cleaning wallpaper, Air quality, green design, green products, green wallpaper, Saratech Permasorb, toxins

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Post tags: Air quality, floating gardens, green architecture, migrating floating gardens, migrating gardens, oxygen, Pollution, rael san fratello architects, Solar Power, urban development

Reverse graffiti — removing paint or dirt from a wall to create a pattern — is a hot trend internationally, and many cities have had a hard time figuring out how to handle it legally. Inhabitat reader Aislan pointed us to this cool video of graffiti artists removing exhaust on the tunnel walls to write “For a Clean Porto Alegre.” Police show up, hear the invisible inkers make their case, and end up shielding them from traffic while they work!

Read the rest of Reverse Graffiti Hits the Streets of Porto Alegre, Brazil

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Post tags: air pollution, Air quality, Art, Brazil, eco-art, green art, green design, green transportation, porto alegre, reverse graffiti, sustainable design

Creating vertical gardens just got a whole lot easier thanks to these modular garden tiles by Spanish firm Ceracasa. Their Lifewall product, which we just saw over at Jetson Green, is a modular tile that can support a number of different plants and is drip irrigated for water efficiency. Since it’s modular, the designer has the ability to place these in whatever pattern they want, which could create some really fascinating designs. Lifewall tiles also interface with another Ceracasa product called Bionictile, which is able to suck pollution out of the air.

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Post tags: "green wall", "living wall", Air quality, bionictile, building facade, caracasa, eco design, green design, green roof, modular, modular tile, NOx, Sustainable Building, tile

“Under the Same Roof” is an exciting new design for the Hong Kong Boundary Crossings Facility (HKBCF) that will be located on an artificial island in the Pearl River Delta in Hong Kong. Designed by Paul Mui Kui Chen, Benny Lee Chiu Ming, and Agnes Hung Oi Kee, the structure is a multi-story facility connecting bus terminals and roads with a sprawling roof covered in faceted panels that are semi-transparent to let natural daylight in, while an indoor winter garden serves as a meeting place and a spot to rest for weary travelers.

Read the rest of Hong Kong Transportation Hub Actually Improves Air Quality

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", Air quality, china, Daylighting, eco design, green design, green transportation, Hong Kong, indoor gardens, natural daylight, natural ventilation, pearl river delta, Sustainable Building, transportation hub

Inhabitat reader deborah Sommers tells us how Alexandre Moronnoz’s new outdoor seating CCC (named after Champignon Carbone Capture, the material from which it is made) takes the concept of ‘green’ furniture a step further. This series of sculptural urban seating is made from  TX Active Cement. – a special kind of cement containing a photocatalyzer that expedites the natural oxidation process of pollutants found in both natural and artificial light and transforms them into less harmful compounds such as water, nitrates and carbon dioxide.

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Post tags: "green furniture", Air quality, Alexandre Moronnoz, CCC, Champignon Carbone Capture, green design, New Materials, oxidation, photocatalyzer, sustainable design, TX Active Cement

New homeowners in Florida, Louisiana and Virginia are being forced out of their homes because of toxic indoor air quality. The culprit -toxic drywall from China. Tests are revealing that the toxic drywall contains hydrogen sulfide and formaldehyde, both of which are incredibly harmful to your health. The toxins are also causing visible signs of corrosion throughout the homes – blackening copper pipes and wiring, causing appliances to fail, and filling the homes with the smell of rotten eggs. What’s worse, many of the homeowners are also horribly sick, with nosebleeds, sinus infections, respiratory problems and more. It’s nightmares like this situation that remind us how important it is to build with non-toxic and eco-friendly materials – not just for the environment, but for our health and sanity too!

Read the rest of Toxic Drywall From China Poisoning American Homes and Their Owners

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Post tags: adverse health affects, Air quality, building materials, Chinese drywall, drywall, eco-friendly building materials, ecorock, indoor air quality, toxic building materials, toxins

Normally at a big construction site, an ugly OSB wall plastered with posters provides a barrier between the site and the rest of the city. Typically thought of as eyesores, these walls are anything but pleasing to the eye. But what if they could be transformed into living urban spaces full of plants and systems that provide both an environmental and social benefit to the people walking by? The Symbiotic Green Wall, by Kooho Jung & Hayeon Kelly Choi, could do just that!

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Post tags: "green wall", "living wall", "water collection", Air quality, construction, construction wall, Hayeon Kelly Choi, Kooho Jung, noise abatement, rainwater, symbiotic green wall, symbiotic wall, Urban design, water filtration