pollution

Somewhere in the future, Ian Cooke envisions a Neponset River where canoes paddle lazily down the water, families sit along the banks in Hyde Park and Mattapan, birds fill the air and migratory fish can swim freely up and down the waterway.

For the past year, the world has been worrying about a virus working its way into our bodies and attacking our lungs. Yet, for much longer, certain air pollutants have been lurking in our streets and skies and damaging the systems that let us breathe. These pollutants, long tracked by stations across the U.S., have been tied to a multitude of heart and lung conditions.