Environmental Health

Most of the 1,000 different eucalyptus tree varieties are native to Australia but not all belong in a pristine wetland.

Tasmania's EPA has ordered a north Tasmanian scrap metal facility to immediately stop using a metal shredder after "elevated levels of lead" were found in the dust it produced. 

Queenslanders are urged to be alert to the hazards of mud left by flooding after a record number of melioidosis cases in Cairns during January.

Beachwatch NSW warns several beaches and pools in Sydney are "likely" to be contaminated after recent heavy rain swept sewage into the waterways.

A study has found that the Greenland ice sheet lost one-fifth more mass than previously estimated, which could have implications for ocean currents that regulate temperatures in Europe and North America.

An algal bloom has closed a popular Perth beach, with the Water Corporation saying concerns the outbreak is linked with treated wastewater pouring into the ocean are unfounded. 

The chair of the Ngumpan Aboriginal Community says Western Australia's Water Corporation failed to effectively notify locals after E. coli and thermophilic naegleria were detected in its water supply.

Naegleria fowleri, which can cause a deadly infection of the brain, has been detected in one popular swimming spot in Western Australia's South West, and there are concerns it may be in another freshwater pool.

Researchers call for new wood heaters to be banned from urban areas and for existing ones to be phased out after their study shows their smoke may be killing up to 63 people a year in the ACT alone.

Clothes shed microfibres while they are manufactured, worn and disposed of, but especially when they are washed. A single wash load can release several million microfibres — but you can decrease this by changing your technique.

The reshuffled Northern Territory government has refused to investigate health concerns about the remote manganese mine at the centre of former chief minister Natasha Fyles's resignation in December.

NSW government and opposition MPs have been accused of "covering up" the potential health impacts of heavy metal mines, and the ineffectiveness of regulatory agencies, in a parliamentary inquiry report. 

Bathing in dirty, smelly water is nothing new in this town where residents spend thousands of dollars on bottled water to avoid drinking the "rotten" local supply. 

Inundated with record numbers of baby bats, a Queensland wildlife group has flown 28 of their orphaned flying foxes to NSW to be cared for by volunteer "mums and dads".

In low-lying Narooma on the New South Wales south coast, an award-winning initiative is creating a "self-healing" barrier against erosion and rising sea levels.

Many items used in Australia's health and medicine industry are single-use by necessity, but how can that waste avoid landfill? 

Heat-related deaths across the world could increase almost fivefold by the middle of the century, according to a new report by more than 100 researchers.

In a NSW first, a Young Mayors program saw 1,400 high-schoolers vote in the first-ever underage preferential vote in the state. The result: these youthful visionaries now have the ear of Wollongong City Council.

Keeping the river clear of rubbish has long been a selfless act for these three Queensland eco-warriors, but it had an unintended pay-off with the discovery of a vintage Rolex watch.

Centennial Coal says it has to release five Olympic pools' worth of "predominantly untreated groundwater" a day to stop a Lithgow mine flooding, which a water scientist says will worsen contamination.

Forced to drink bottled water for years due to health risks, locals in Cue now enjoy Western Australia's best tap water according to a panel of industry judges.

Chemical run-off from the Forest Hill RAAF base has been found just 650 metres from Wagga Wagga's water supply, despite recent studies by Defence claiming it would take at least 50 years to reach the bores.

Residents of Dardanup in the Ferguson Valley wine district are up against a landfill site expansion to rival the Pyramids of Giza.

Water running through the Grenfell-district property was also found to have a pH the same as "stomach acid", according to evidence heard by a NSW inquiry into heavy metal impacts.

Rice is agriculture's second-largest methane emitter, surpassing beef, but a small group of growers is producing a rain-fed crop, with a smaller environmental footprint. The problem is they can't export it.