Grantee Research Project Results
2022 Progress Report: Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions on reducing wildfire smoke exposure and health risks in low-income hard-to-reach communities in California
EPA Grant Number: R840240Title: Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions on reducing wildfire smoke exposure and health risks in low-income hard-to-reach communities in California
Investigators: Wong-Parodi, Gabrielle , Cho, Seung-Hyun
Institution: Stanford University , RTI International
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: September 1, 2021 through April 28, 2025
Project Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2021 through August 31,2022
Project Amount: $999,846
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 , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Wildfires
Objective:
The main goal of this project is to assess the effectiveness of technical and health risk communication interventions and its interaction with behavior in reducing wildland fire smoke exposures and associated health risks among low-income and non-English speaking communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Specific aims to achieve this goal are to: (1) evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions in reducing exposure and health risks over time, (2) evaluate how the effectiveness of different combinations of these interventions is moderated by behavior over time, and (3) evaluate how and why behavior is affected by use of the app-delivered native language messaging over time.
Progress Summary:
- Completed Phase 1 (Intervention Development and Tailoring) and Phase 2 (Pilot Testing for Validating Protocols and Development) as planned for the first reporting period.
- Although there has been a delay in recruitment rate because of COVID-19, our community engagement approaches including partnerships with community organizations (i.e., El Concilio and Climate Resilient Communities) and using a Promotores model were effective in recruiting our hard-to-reach population.
- Held three all team in-person training and listening sessions in November 2021, December 2021, and April 2022 for participant recruitment, data collection, and air quality and health monitoring sensor technologies.
- Formed the Community Advisor Committee and received invaluable feedback to improve and strengthen the overall project design, protocols, and data collection.
- Implemented a quality control system to monitor metadata and measurement data to assess data quality. Based on pilot (Phase 2) data, we improved various study protocols, data cleaning/reporting software, and metadata and measurement databases, and enhanced trainings.
- Updated the Our Communities app to optimize for our intervention study design.
- Examined spatial and temporal variability of ambient PM concentration measurements and compared with indoor air quality measurements from pilot testing in the absence of a wildfire smoke event. We observed within- and between-person variabilities of indoor air quality, of which information can be used to identify potential sources and modifiable factors among our study communities.
Future Activities:
In the next reporting period, we plan on conducting a full intervention study (Phase 3) with three tiered steps: (1) baseline condition, (2) intervention deployment, and (3) intervention evaluation.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 5 publications | 2 publications in selected types | All 2 journal articles |
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Herbert N, Beckman C, Cannedy C, Cao J, Cho S, Fisher S, Huang S, Kramer S, Lopez O, Lopez S, Ouyang D, Suckale J, Wulf-Saena V, Zhang Z, Wong-Parodi G. Improving adaptation to wildfire smoke and extreme heat in frontline communities:evidence from a community-engaged pilot study in the San Francisco Bay Area. Environmental Research Letters 2023;18(7):074026. |
R840240 (2022) R840240 (2024) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
air sensor, particulate matter, exposure, personal monitoring, health effects, risk communication, community engagement, behavior change, native language messagingProgress 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.