Grantee Research Project Results
2022 Progress Report: School Resilience to Wildland Smoke and Outdoor sources of Fine & Ultrafine Particles
EPA Grant Number: R840234Title: School Resilience to Wildland Smoke and Outdoor sources of Fine & Ultrafine Particles
Investigators: Austin, Elena , Larson, Timothy V. , Seto, Edmund , Karr, Catherine
Current Investigators: Austin, Elena , Karr, Catherine , Seto, Edmund , Larson, Timothy V.
Institution: University of Washington
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: September 1, 2021 through August 31, 2024
Project Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2021 through August 31,2022
Project Amount: $548,537
RFA: Interventions and Communication Strategies to Reduce Health Risks of Wildland Fire Smoke Exposures (2021) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Early Career Awards , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Wildfires
Objective:
We propose to: 1. Implement a classroom-based Portable Air Cleaner (PAC) intervention to reduce exposure to wildland fire smoke across 10 Washington State schools, 2. Observe the impact of PAC intervention on respiratory health of the students using a randomized-controlled study design within school, and 3. Engage with participating schools to adapt an existing hands-on air quality curriculum aimed at increasing environmental health literacy on the topic of ambient smoke, air quality and health.
Progress Summary:
Accomplishments over the first year were the following: 1) We obtained human subjects approval from the University of Washington and EPA to conduct the PAC intervention on respiratory health of participating students and to implement an air quality curriculum aimed for increasing environmental health literacy, 2) performed preliminary work to determine the most suitable air instruments for collecting indoor/outdoor measurements that will provide a model predicting size-fractioned infiltrations rates, 3) conducted fixed and mobile monitoring under different conditions (non-wildfire smoke conditions and high wildfire smoke episode) and in proximity to assorted types of sources, and 4) interviewed school administrators on topics of general indoor air quality, PACs, and air pollution sources.
Future Activities:
In Year 2 of the project, we will be focusing on reaching the Aim 2 and Aim 3 objectives. We will start deploying PACs cleaners to the participating schools. The goal is to have 5 classrooms per school with a total of 6 participating elementary schools. In addition, Purple Air sensors and HOBO data loggers will be placed in the indoor classrooms. Each school will have outdoor Purple Air Sensors. We will recruit students to be to assess the impact of the intervention on the respiratory tract symptoms and lung function growth rate over a 1-year period.
We plan on recruiting classrooms that will implement the hands-on air quality curriculum and assess changes in the knowledge, attitudes and practices related to wildfire smoke of the participating students, teachers, and families.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 5 publications for this projectProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe 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.