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Science Quickly

EPA weakens air pollution rules, cancer survival soars, and NASA evacuates astronauts

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of Science Quickly, we unpack the Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial decision to change how it calculates health benefits from regulating certain air pollutants, a move that experts warn could lead to dirtier air and worse health outcomes. And we’ve achieved a major milestone in cancer care, with five-year survival rates hitting a record high, but looming policy threats could stall progress. Plus, NASA’s first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station could offer lessons for future missions. Recommended Reading: America’s Air Is about to Get Dirtier—And More Dangerous 70 Percent of Cancer Patients Now Survive at Least Five Years, Study Finds Astronauts Evacuate the ISS after Medical Incident New Study Probes How Same-Sex Behaviors Evolved in Nonhuman Primates E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.3

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0:08.4

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0:21.6

The vet video calls if your pet is in need of urgent medical assistance, contact your local vet immediately.

0:26.6

Visit Petjavity.co.uk for full details. For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Kendra Pira Lewis, in for Rachel Feltman.

0:52.1

You're listening to our weekly science news roundup.

0:55.1

First up, earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a new rule

0:59.8

signaling a major change to the way it counts for the impact of certain air pollutants on human health.

1:04.9

Many health experts say the shift will likely lead to increased air pollution and worse health outcomes.

1:10.4

Andrea Thompson, Siam's senior editor for Life Sciences, is here to give us a clearer understanding

1:15.5

of what the agency is doing and what that means for the air we all breathe.

1:20.2

Hi, Andrea.

1:21.0

Thanks for joining us today.

1:22.5

Thanks for having me.

1:23.5

So my understanding is that in general, the EPA uses a type of cost-benefit analysis to understand the impact of an environmental regulation.

1:31.9

Can you talk a bit about how prior to this rule change, the EPA measured these costs and benefits?

1:36.8

Yeah, so in general, the science for how you sort of calculate how much a regulation will cost,

1:43.7

so the economic benefit you'll get from it

1:45.8

has been pretty well established over several decades.

...

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