Grantee Research Project Results
2024 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, 2023 through August 31,2024
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 request for applications (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 third year of the grant, we were able to continue collecting PM2.5 data from 19 partner schools within Denver Public Schools (DPS) and Adams 12 school districts using Purple Air monitors indoors and outdoors. We also maintain 6 Purple Air sensors collocated at two different regulatory monitoring sites (one in an urban area and one just outside of the urban area near some industrial sources) so that we can have better correction equations for our Purple Air monitors. We recruited a total of 351 families who showed interest in being involved in at home sensing. Of these families, 88 filled out all of the permission forms (out of 142 who filled out at least one) and from those, we were able to install monitors in 73 homes where they were for four to six weeks. From these homes, we got daily symptom surveys from 117 students for a total of 2566 daily symptom reports.
We worked with the school districts to obtain the nurse records of asthma medication usage for the 2023-2024 school year to add to our data for 2022-2023. And we hope to get data for 2024-2025 also.
We have begun analysis of all of our data to meet the research goals. This work is ongoing due to a change in personnel, but we have a plan to answer all of the research questions in research publications.
Future Activities:
In this year of a no-cost extension, we will be analyzing the data from the homes to compare to the schools. We will also begin analysis of the health data from schools and daily symptom surveys aligned with the PM2.5 data from homes and schools. We aim to have our findings for all three aims in scientific peer-reviewed publications within a year of the end of the no-cost extension.
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.