Air pollution causes serious damage to our bodies, sometimes resulting in premature death, and it’s also messing with our minds. Kristina Marusic is an investigative reporter with Environmental Health News, which published a 5-part series about how air, water, and climate pollution shape our mental health, and she joins Host Bobby Bascomb for the first part of our coverage of this series.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, Environmental Health News Editor Peter Dykstra joins Host Steve Curwood to talk about how organized crime is fueling deforestation, a study that suggests potty-training cows could help curb their emissions, and a message to Congress by President “Teddy” Roosevelt back in 1907 warning about the limits of resource extraction.

With two out of three Americans overweight and a third considered obese, a new meta-study correlates the phthalates in plastics not only with bigger waistlines but also a wide variety of other disorders including male and female reproduction problems and mental health troubles. Phthalates are ubiquitous in the environment, including fast food hamburgers, medical tubing and personal care products. Biologist Maricel Maffini, the lead researcher in this study, joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss the urgent need for authorities better regulate phthalates.

Dozens of YouTube videos show daring little birds pulling hair right out of sleeping dogs and other mammals, but only recently have scientists become interested in this phenomenon. They’ve coined a new word for it: “kleptotrichy”, from the Greek words meaning “to steal” and “hair”. Living on Earth’s Don Lyman reports on why scientists think titmice, crows, and starlings engage in this risky behavior.

Phthalates are a group of chemicals commonly found in plastics, to the extent that they’re often referred to as “everywhere chemicals” with a wide variety of health effects. Detailed statistical analysis conducted for a new study in the US finds that people aged 55-64 with documented phthalate exposure a decade earlier died at a rate of over 100,000 people a year, most commonly from cardiovascular disease. Persons in other age groups aren’t exempt from risk; indeed phthalates are considered by some to pose the greatest risk to children in the womb and during early years of development, though so far other studies have been more limited in scope. Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb talks to Dr. Leonardo Trasande of NYU, the lead researcher on the newly published study, about how to avoid unnecessary exposure to these chemicals that can sometimes seem unavoidable.

The world’s oceans are in trouble: an estimated 20 billion pounds of plastic trash are dumped in the ocean each year, wreaking havoc on the planet. Now a group of YouTube influencers calling themselves “Team Seas” are working together to stem the flow of trash. Mark Rober, a YouTuber, engineer, inventor and co-organizer of the campaign, joins Host Bobby Bascomb to talk about Team Seas’ $30 million goal to collect 30 million pounds of trash from the world’s oceans.