July 18, 2025, 6:03 a.m.

An Invisible Killer Has Been Discovered

The Conspiracy Report

Before 1970, there were guidelines on how much waste a company could dump in a river, or pump in the air. But there was no enforcement, no laws with teeth. But there’s one problem the creation of the EPA didn’t address…

By David Sussin

In 1969, there was a river so polluted, it actually caught fire.

Apparently, things have to get pretty bad for the government to take action. The fire on the Cuyahoga River was a tipping point.

The river, which ran by a steel mill, had collected so much pollution, all life in its waters had died off, replaced by thick sludge, oil and sewage. When a passing train let out an electrical spark, the entire river erupted in flames.

The event was alarming. People saw it as shocking evidence of unchecked industrial pollution. President Richard Nixon was driven to establish the Environmental Protection Agency, which became official in 1970.

It's not like before this, people could pollute as much as they wanted. But it was pretty close. Before 1970, there were guidelines on how much waste a company could dump in a river, or pump in the air. But there was no enforcement, no laws with teeth.

Oil slicks and untreated sewage were common sights in public waters. With the EPA, all that changed. The new agency had teeth: they could levy huge fines and actually shut down polluters.

But while they had power to enforce regulations, there weren't all that many federal regulations to enforce. When it came to air pollution, it took 27 years of smoggy skies before the EPA established enforceable air quality standards.


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The agency finally acted after a series of studies came out proving our air was really bad. In 1993 Harvard Six Cities Study showed a strong link between fine particulate matter (specifically PM2.5, or particulates 2.5 microns or smaller in diameter) and premature death.

A couple years later, the American Cancer Society established a clear connection between long-term exposure to PM 2.5 particles and death from heart and lung disease. More studies followed, linking air pollution and asthma, heart attacks, and fetal development issues.

The EPA finally had data to set some standards. It led to the 1997 National Ambient Air Quality Standards. For the first time, there were specific limits on just how much deadly particulates the public would breathe.

Since then, scientists have closely tracked PM 2.5 pollution. The regulations have been working. Average annual PM 2.5 levels dropped 40% from 2000 to 2020. The reduction is even more substantial in major cities like Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Houston where emissions controls were stricter.

Larger particles, say PM10 (10 microns in size), are naturally filtered by our body. They get caught in the nose and throat, and don't make it anywhere that causes harm. But -- as all those studies showed -- particles 2.5 microns in size get past our filters and into our lungs. By comparison, a human hair is 70 microns wide. When particles get down to 2.5 microns, they cause damage.

But a recent study took a deep dive into even smaller particles. Specifically, particulate matter one micron or smaller (PM1). And what they found was alarming.

The groundbreaking 25-year analysis from Washington University in St. Louis used satellite data to map PM1 levels across the U.S. The study, recently published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal, is the most comprehensive, nationwide study of PM1 ever done.

And it showed that, while air quality has improved, rising wildfires have been increasing levels of the more harmful PM1 pollutants.

For all those decades where larger particles have been regulated, we've been breathing PM1 pollutants, and no one's been tracking it. And while PM2.5 concentrations show significant reductions, the study uncovered instances where PM1 levels were actually getting worse.

Wildfires are the big driver, pumping massive amounts of PM 1 into the air at the same time EPA regulations have been dampening the effect of pollution from fossil fuels.

Climate change has made wildfires bigger and more intense. The average annual acres burned has more than doubled compared to the 1990s. And there's a new term, "mega-fires", introduced to describe fires burning over 100,000 acres, which are more common than ever. California's worst fires on record all occurred after 2015.

Why is this so concerning? Well, "PM 1" particulate matter is a much more serious health threat. Smaller is not better. These particles are six-times smaller than blood cells. And they do more than just get in your lungs.

Sub-micron particles are small enough to pass through lung tissue and enter the blood. From there, they spread to your heart, brain, liver, and kidneys.

Of course, the issues start in the lungs. PM1 particles reach deep into the tissue, potentially triggering irreversible Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a long-term disease that makes it hard to breath and only gets worse.

But PM1 particles do awful things to any organ they infest. Breathing significant amounts of PM1 could potentially breach the blood-brain barrier, triggering chronic inflammation and build-up of proteins in your brain linked to Alzheimer's and other dementias.

If the particles spread to the heart, it could result in endothelial damage and arterial stiffening. Most disturbingly, PM1 pollutants could pass through the placenta in a healthy pregnant woman, disrupting normal development, exposing the baby to lower birth weight, asthma risk, and even genetic mutations.

All that invisible, fine dust in the air can do more harm than just taking your breath away.

The Washington University study urgently recommends focusing on the health impact of PM1 versus PM2.5, which would be a shift in focus for the EPA.

Turns out, where there's smoke, there's lethal pollution looking for a victim.


Sources:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250616040230.htm

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(25)00094-4/fulltext

https://engineering.washu.edu/news/2025/Tiny-and-toxic-Researchers-track-smaller-air-pollution-particles-across-US-skies.html

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