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THE DETROIT CHILDREN'S HEALTH STUDY: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS OF AMBIENT AIR EXPOSURE ON THE RESPIRATORY HEALTH OF ASTHMATIC CHILDREN
Citation:
WILLIAMS, A. H., G. ANDREWS, S. MUKERJEE, AND L. M. NEAS. THE DETROIT CHILDREN'S HEALTH STUDY: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS OF AMBIENT AIR EXPOSURE ON THE RESPIRATORY HEALTH OF ASTHMATIC CHILDREN. Presented at EPA Science Fourm, Washington, DC, May 16 - 18, 2005.
Description:
The United States has experienced a significant increase in childhood asthma since the late 1980s. EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection estimates that one out of every fifteen children under 18 years of age has asthma. In children under 5 years of age, asthma rates have increased 160 percent in the past 18 years. The Detroit Children's Health Study (DCHS) will examine the question of whether long-term, early-life exposures to emissions from traffic and other urban sources play a key role in the development and aggravation of allergic asthma in schoolchildren. Scientists from EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), carrying out the epidemiologic and respiratory health study, are collaborating with those of EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) to conduct an exposure assessment of air in the Detroit area. The study will aid in the further development of an Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter under the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7403(d)).
Parents of 15,000 children enrolled in fourth and fifth grades of selected Detroit and Dearborn Public Schools will receive a twenty-page respiratory health questionnaire, along with a written request for permission for their children to participate in pulmonary function examinations. The respiratory health questionnaire consists of questions specific to the child including general demographic information, childhood respiratory illness and history of asthma, and current respiratory health conditions. Over 3,000 children from 60 selected schools will attempt to perform a routine pulmonary function examination and an exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) exam.
Ambient air pollutants will be measured at twenty-five elementary schools in the Detroit metropolitan area. These schools have been selected to represent areas close to and far from Detroit roadways, industrial and other urban influences, and the international border crossings with Canada, as well as those areas in between.
The DCHS will have a positive impact on our understanding of the effects of ambient air exposure on the respiratory health of asthmatic children. Additionally, through EPA's work in the Detroit area and the state of Michigan, valuable partnerships have been developed with other federal, state and local agencies. Collaborations have been established with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality; the Detroit and Dearborn, MI, Public Schools; the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion; community health organizations in the Detroit area; and academic institutions in the state of Michigan.
This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.