National Observer – Air pollutants have cost Canada $120 billion per year, according to recently released figures from Health Canada, a toll that roughly equals the value of all oil and gas exports. The health burden from pollutants in the air that come from industrial activities like oil and gas extraction, mining, manufacturing, construction, and transportation — as well as natural events like forest fires — contributed to 15,300 premature Canadian deaths in 2016, the most recent year figures are available.

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Nature – Residential buildings can concentrate radioactive radon gas, exposing occupants to particle radiation that increases lung cancer risk. This has worsened over time in North America, with newer residences containing greater radon. Notably, residences built in the twenty-first century are occupied by significantly younger people experiencing greater radiation dose rates from radon (mean age of 46 at 5.01 mSv/y), relative to older groups more likely to occupy twentieth century-built properties (mean age of 53 at 3.45–4.22 mSv/y). Newer, higher radon-containing properties are also more likely to have minors, pregnant women and an overall higher number of occupants living there full time.

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NPR – Tens of millions of Americans experienced at least a day last year shrouded in wildfire smoke. Entire cities were blanketed, in some cases for weeks, as unprecedented wildfires tore across the Western U.S., causing increases in hospitalizations for respiratory emergencies and concerns about people’s longer-term health. A new study finds those concerns are well founded. Researchers say that the tiny particles released in wildfire smoke are up to 10 times more harmful to humans than particles released from other sources, such as car exhaust.

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BMC Women’s Health – This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to update the current evidence regarding the relationship between night-shift work duration and breast cancer risk. Based on the overall evaluation of 26 eligible articles, in the short-term night-shift workers, the risk of breast cancer was increased (RR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.03–1.24), but the increase did not observe in the long-term night-shift workers (RR = 1.08, 95% CI 0.99–1.17). The researchers suggest further studies with adequate information and exact definition regarding night shift work and its duration.

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