Grantee Research Project Results

2013 Progress Report: Assess the Linkage Between School-Related Environment, Children’s School Performance/Health, and Environmental Policies Through Environmental Public Health Tracking

EPA Grant Number: R834787
Title: Assess the Linkage Between School-Related Environment, Children’s School Performance/Health, and Environmental Policies Through Environmental Public Health Tracking
Investigators: Lin, Shao
Institution: The State University of New York
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: February 1, 2011 through January 31, 2014 (Extended to January 31, 2017)
Project Period Covered by this Report: February 1, 2013 through January 31,2014
Project Amount: $500,000
RFA: Exploring Linkages Between Health Outcomes and Environmental Hazards, Exposures, and Interventions for Public Health Tracking and Risk Management (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health

Objective:

The objective of this project is to develop new and improve existing Environmental Public Health Indicators (EPHIs) related to the school environment in order to evaluate the linkage between school environment, childrens health and performance as well as the impact of state and local environmental policy intervention. The ultimate goals are to identify school-related EPHIs which can be used for routine and long-term environmental public health tracking and surveillance, planning appropriate interventions, and protecting childrens health.

Progress Summary:

We have advanced all activities planned originally in Year 3 including: 1) cleaning and linking existing datasets; 2) developing indicators; 3) developing statistical methods; 4) school environment and attendance/test score analysis (despite the delay of health data access); and 5) intervention analysis.

Specifically, we have hired a new Research Scientist I to act as a project coordinator, a new consultant, and an Assistant Research Scientist to work on the project. A comprehensive ratings summary was compiled ranking indicators high, medium, or low, based on specific and comprehensive criteria. Indicators include measures of various indoor hazards (indoor air quality, school building conditions, and composite measures) and outdoor school-related outdoor environmental hazards (traffic, air pollution, proximity to industrial facilities, and pesticide use and management) that have a biological basis for concern. We also have made significant progress in assessing hazard/exposure-outcome relationships, including over time, assessing attendance as the primary outcome, and assessing inpatient/ outpatient hospital admission & emergency room data. Descriptive, bivariate, and some multivariate analyses have been completed and others are underway. In the analysis of school building conditions over time, worsening overall building rating was found to be significantly associated with having no indoor air quality plan in place after controlling for minority enrollment & geographic location. We also analyzed the impacts of environmental policies including retrofitting school buses and the NOx State Implementation Plan (SIP) Call. Summertime ambient ozone concentrations significantly declined statewide during the NOx SIP call post-intervention period. After adjusting for temporal trends, particulate matter (PM_2.5), and meteorological variables, significant declines in respiratory admissions for children 5-17 years old were observed following NOx SIP call implementation in the Long Island, NYC Metro, Upper Hudson Eastern Ontario and Central regions. Weve submitted a paper on classroom conditions, CO₂ concentrations and teacher health symptoms, and another paper on building-related health symptoms and classroom indoor air quality, both to Indoor Air. Various methods have been used in analysis, including descriptive, and multivariate, using logistic regression, and time series (general additive models). Also, QA/QC principals have been applied throughout the project in order to conduct analyses based on good data quality standards, appropriate statistical methods, precision and validity of the results.

Future Activities:

The activities for the fourth year of this grant will include completing hazard-outcome analyses and intervention analyses, reporting findings and integrating our findings into the NYS Environmental Public Health Tracking system (EPHT). The team will utilize appropriate statistical approaches to gain an increased understanding of the role of various aspects of the school environment with respect to respiratory health outcomes (asthma hospitalizations and emergency room visits), student attendance and academic performance. Multi-level approaches with case-control and cross-sectional study designs will be applied using multivariate linear and logistic regression techniques. Also, principal components analysis, and land-use regression will be used during validation assessments. We will also use time-series (general-additive models) and cross-sectional (for spatial comparisons) analysis designs to examine potential impacts from environmental actions and policies such as the school bus retrofitting/ ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel policy and NOx SIP Call in NYS. Further, we plan to formulate and submit papers to peer-reviewed journals. Lastly, we anticipate being able to begin integrating new or enhancing existing school environmental public health indicators into the NYS EPHT.

Journal Articles on this Report : 5 Displayed | Download in RIS Format

Publications Views
Other project views:	All 22 publications	5 publications in selected types	All 5 journal articles

Publications
Type	Citation	Project	Document Sources
Journal Article	Kielb C, Lin S, Muscatiello N, Hord W, Rogers-Harrington J, Healy J. Building-related health symptoms and classroom indoor air quality: a survey of school teachers in New York State. Indoor Air 2015;25(4):371-380.	R834787 (2013) R834787 (2014) R834787 (2015) R834787 (Final) R835636 (2016) R835636 (2017)	Abstract from PubMed Abstract: Wiley-Abstract Exit Other: ResearchGate-Abstract Exit
Journal Article	Lin S, Jones R, Munsie JP, Nayak SG, Fitzgerald EF, Hwang SA. Childhood asthma and indoor allergen exposure and sensitization in Buffalo, New York. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health 2012;215(3):297-305.	R834787 (2012) R834787 (2013) R834787 (2014) R834787 (2015) R834787 (Final)	Abstract from PubMed Full-text: ScienceDirect-Full Text HTML Exit Other: ScienceDirect-Full Text PDF Exit
Journal Article	Lin S, Kielb CL, Reddy AL, Chapman BR, Hwang S-A. Comparison of indoor air quality management strategies between the school and district levels in New York State. Journal of School Health 2012;82(3):139-146.	R834787 (2012) R834787 (2013) R834787 (2014) R834787 (2015) R834787 (Final)	Abstract from PubMed Full-text: Wiley-Full Text Exit Abstract: Wiley-Abstract Exit Other: ResearchGate-Abstract Exit
Journal Article	Lin S, Jones R, Pantea C, Ozkaynak H, Rao ST, Hwang S-A, Garcia VC. Impact of NO_x emissions reduction policy on hospitalizations for respiratory disease in New York State. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 2013;23(1):73-80.	R834787 (2012) R834787 (2013) R834787 (2014) R834787 (2015) R834787 (Final)	Abstract from PubMed Full-text: Nature Publishing-Full Text Exit Abstract: Nature Publishing-Abstract Exit Other: ResearchGate-Abstract Exit
Journal Article	Muscatiello N, McCarthy A, Kielb C, Hsu W-H, Hwang S-A, Lin S. Classroom conditions and CO2 concentrations and teacher health symptom reporting in 10 New York State schools. Indoor Air 2015;25(2):157-167.	R834787 (2013) R834787 (2014) R834787 (2015) R834787 (Final) R835636 (2016) R835636 (2017)	Abstract from PubMed Full-text: Wiley-Full Text HTML Exit Abstract: Wiley-Abstract Exit Other: Wiley-Full Text PDF Exit

Supplemental Keywords:

children, school-related hazards, public health tracking

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.