Citation:

Vette, A., J. Burke, G. Norris, M. Landis, S. Batterman, M. Breen, V. Isakov, T. Lewis, Ian Gilmour, A. Kamal, D. Hammond, R. Vedantham, S. Bereznicki, N. Tian, C. Croghan, AND C. Action. The Near-Road Exposures and Effects of Urban Air Pollutants Study (NEXUS): Study Design and Methods. SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT. Elsevier BV, AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, 448:38-47, (2013).

Impact/Purpose:

Paper describes the study design and methods of the Near-road EXposures and effects of Urban air pollutants Study (NEXUS), a cooperative agreement between EPA-ORD and the University of Michigan.

Description:

The Near-road EXposures and effects of urban air pollutants Study (NEXUS) was designed to examine the relationship between near-roadway exposures to air pollutants and respiratory outcomes in a cohort of asthmatic children who live close to major roadways in Detroit, Michigan USA. The NEXUS began in September, 2010 and will continue until mid-2012. Approximately 120 children, ages 6-14, with persistent asthma were recruited to participate in NEXUS based on the proximity of their home to major roadways that carried different amounts of diesel traffic. The study investigates the effects of traffic-associated exposures on adverse respiratory outcomes, biomolecular markers of inflammatory and oxidative stress, and how these exposures affect the frequency and severity of respiratory viral infections in a cohort of children with asthma. The study uses an integrated measurement and modeling approach to quantitatively estimate the contribution of traffic sources to near-roadway air pollution and evaluate predictive models for assessing the impact of near-roadway pollution on children’s exposures. Two intensive field campaigns were conducted in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 to measure a suite of air pollutants including particulate matter (PM) mass and composition, oxides of nitrogen (NO and NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and black carbon (BC) indoors and outdoors of 25 participants’ homes, at two area schools, and along a spatial transect adjacent to I-96, a major highway in Detroit. A nested and repeated measures design was employed whereby measurements were collected for the duration of the seasonal intensives at the schools and the I-96 site while residential measurements were collected simultaneously at four homes for five-days each operated on a rotating basis. Selected measurement data results from the Fall 2010 field intensive are presented to illustrate that the design of the NEXUS has been successfully implemented. These data provide evidence of roadway impacts and exposure variability between study participants that will be further explored for associations with the health measures.

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