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PREFACE: SPECIAL ISSUE OF ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT, FOR PARTICULATE MATTER: ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES, EXPOSURE AND THE FOURTH COLLOQUIUM ON PM AND HUMAN HEALTH
Citation:
Middlebrook, A. M., J. Turner, AND P A. Solomon. PREFACE: SPECIAL ISSUE OF ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT, FOR PARTICULATE MATTER: ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES, EXPOSURE AND THE FOURTH COLLOQUIUM ON PM AND HUMAN HEALTH. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT. Elsevier Online, New York, NY, 38(31):5179-5181, (2004).
Impact/Purpose:
The PM Supersites Program is an ambient monitoring program intended to address the scientific uncertainties associated with fine particulate matter. The main objectives of the Supersites Program are as follows: 1) characterize particulate matter in a way that contributes to the understanding of source-receptor relationships and supports development of State Implementation Plans (SIPs), 2) develop and test advanced measurement methods for potential use in national monitoring networks, and 3) support health and exposure studies by providing detailed chemical and physical data at one or more central monitoring sites.
The specific objectives of this task are to provide scientific review and coordination of the technical aspects of the Supersites Program. This includes coordination among all Supersites projects and other projects which support Supersites objectives, overseeing of the data management, and coordinating the communication of data analysis and modeling results to the scientific community and other stakeholders. Products include a number of peer-reviewed journal articles (approaching 200 or more), final reports from each project, a relational database than includes not only Supersites data, but most aerometric data collected in the continental US and SE Canada during the period July 2001 to August 2002, and a policy relevant findings synthesis entitled Key and Policy Relevant Findings from the Supersites Program and Related Studies. Also supporting the synthesis is a major international conference where results will be presented from air quality methods, measurements, modeling, and data analysis studies with similar objectives to the Supersites program and during the time period of the Supersites Program, i.e., the last 5-7 years.
Description:
In a continuing effort to improve communications among the atmospheric sciences, policy, and health communities, an international specialty conference was initiated in 2001 that took place in April 2003 in Pittsburgh, PA. The conference entitled, "Particulate Matter: Atmospheric Sciences, Exposure, and the Fourth Colloquium on PM and Human Health," provided a major show case for presentations and a meaningful exchange of information among the three communities. Over 350 papers were presented as posters along with a series of workshops on first day followed by 2.5 days of plenary sessions addressing key atmospheric sciences and health questions related to PM, its fate and accumulation in air, linkages between source and receptor, and PM and health relationships. This special issue of Atmospheric Environment, for which this preface describes, is one of six resulting from the subjected meeting. Three others are presented in different atmospheric sciences journals (AS&T, JGR-Atmospheres, and JAWMA) and in two special issues of Inhalation Toxicology. This preface simply introduces the conference and the special issue. The United states Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and managed the preparation of this preface. It has been subjected to Agency's administrative review and approved for publication.