Grantee Research Project Results
2022 Progress Report: Informing school decision-making during wildfire events: evaluation of indoor PM2.5 exposures and associated health impacts in children
EPA Grant Number: R840232Title: Informing school decision-making during wildfire events: evaluation of indoor PM2.5 exposures and associated health impacts in children
Investigators: Reid, Colleen Elizabeth
Institution: University of Colorado Boulder
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: September 1, 2021 through April 23, 2025
Project Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2021 through August 31,2022
Project Amount: $549,919
RFA: Interventions and Communication Strategies to Reduce Health Risks of Wildland Fire Smoke Exposures (2021) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Endocrine Disruptors , Environmental Engineering , Early Career Awards , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Airborne Particulate Matter Health Effects , Wildfires
Objective:
Current guidance states that schools should determine whether to close when impacted by wildfire smoke based on whether schools or children’s homes are likely to have better indoor air quality. Most schools and communities, however, do not have reliable information on PM2.5 levels inside and outside of their schools and homes to inform decisions about where children should shelter. This proposal addresses the first research area of this RFA by collecting data to inform the intervention of whether schools should stay open or closed during wildfire air pollution events. The three objectives of the study are to (1) evaluate to what extent indoor PM2.5 levels at schools are affected by wildfire smoke and which school-level factors influence the infiltration of PM2.5 into schools during wildfire events, (2) compare indoor school PM2.5 levels to indoor PM2.5 levels at students’ homes to inform decision-making related to keeping schools open during wildfire events, and evaluate which home-level factors influence the infiltration of PM2.5 into homes, and (3) assess the relationship between PM2.5 levels inside and outside of schools and children’s respiratory health.
Progress Summary:
In the first year of the project, we have completed the tasks we set out to do in year 1 including ordering and obtaining the low-cost sensors, collocating them with regulatory monitors, creating correction equations for our low-cost sensors, getting IRB approval for our human subjects data collection, recruiting schools and monitoring air quality inside and outside of schools, and recruiting families from those schools and starting monitoring in homes. As the first year is about data collection, we do not have any formal outputs or outcomes at this point in time, but we have collected a lot of data and are starting to analyze it.
Future Activities:
We will continue collecting data from homes and schools throughout the remainder of the project timeframe. We will also attempt to recruit one additional school into our study. We will begin analyses related to objective (2) before the end of 2022. Starting in 2023, we will begin receiving asthma inhaler use data from school nurses and can begin objective (3) analysis. We intend to start work on a publication related to building ventilation rates in schools in the second year of the project.
Supplemental Keywords:
fine particulate matter, PM2.5, exposure, health effects, human health, sensitive populations, community-based, wildfire smokeRelevant Websites:
None at this time
Progress 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.