Grantee Research Project Results
2021 Progress Report: Health Effects Institute (2020-2025): A Partnership on the Health Effects of Air Pollution
EPA Grant Number: CR839981Title: Health Effects Institute (2020-2025): A Partnership on the Health Effects of Air Pollution
Investigators: Greenbaum, Daniel S.
Institution: Health Effects Institute
EPA Project Officer: Keating, Terry
Project Period: April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2025
Project Period Covered by this Report: April 1, 2021 through March 31,2022
Project Amount: $25,000,000
RFA: Health Effect Institute (HEI) (2020) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Airborne Particulate Matter Health Effects , Human Health
Objective:
To support research on the health effects of emissions from motor vehicles, fuels, and other sources of environmental pollution. Themes guiding the research program are Accountability: Testing the Links Between Air Quality Actions and Health; Complex Questions for the Air Pollution Mixture; Transport and Urban Health; and Global Health.
Progress Summary:
During the past year under Award CR83998101, HEI has made substantial progress in meeting its goals. HEI started several new studies with an additional study under negotiation. Highlights of HEI activities are provided below.
Accountability: Testing the Links Between Air Quality Actions and Health
- Under its accountability program, HEI initiated two new studies from an open-ended solicitation and our new investigator award. One study will compare the effects of selected policies that targeted mobile vehicles and electricity generating units to improve air quality, and the other will develop national, fine-scale, daily PM2.5 source impact exposure estimates and their uncertainties to enable long-term regulatory accountability and environmental justice analyses. Other ongoing work focused on U.S. policies includes a study that is evaluating a national school bus diesel retrofit program and another study that is assessing national and local programs to reduce emissions from motor vehicles in Houston, Texas. Two studies in rapidly developing China are evaluating the effect of national policies to reduce air pollution on mortality and a program to subsidize clean energy for home cooking and heating in villages around Beijing. Another study that is expected to be completed in the next reporting period is calculating mortality benefits per ton emissions reduction of NOx and other pollutants. In addition, one study that is funded under the air pollution and Covid-19 program (see below) has an accountability component to it—to investigate the effect of pandemic lockdowns on air quality and health outcomes.
Complex Questions for the Air Pollution Mixture
- Studies on the effects of low levels of exposure to air pollution in large European and American cohorts were completed and published this reporting period; a third study in a large Canadian cohort was also completed and will be published in July 2022. Collaborative work with the three study authors is ongoing and will be completed by December 2022.
- In the research program on the interaction of air pollution exposure and Covid-19 health outcomes, several new studies got underway; they were under negotiation at the close of our last reporting period. One U.S. study is assessing the relationship between air pollution exposure and COVID-19 incidence, complications, and mortality, and another U.S. study is evaluating the interaction between long-term air pollution exposure and neighborhood vulnerability to adverse COVID-19 outcomes. The other study initiated this year was noted above in the accountability area and is evaluating changes in mortality given changes in NO2 and PM2.5 concentrations resulting from COVID lockdown policies. Research continued with the two European studies that are investigating the risk of severe outcomes in susceptible groups, one in Denmark and one in Spain.
- To guide improvements in air pollution exposure assessment, three studies are investigating strategies to enhance exposure assessment, and two studies are quantifying the influence of exposure measurement error. Studies in the United States and Europe are focused on approaches that exhibit a high degree of variation in space and time and apply emerging technologies and other novel approaches. The overall goal is to design approaches that can be applied to long-term epidemiology studies and to assess the benefit of increasingly sophisticated models and approaches.
- Additional research that is funded through our new investigator award to support researchers at the early stages of their career continued. Two studies are conducting research on mechanisms underlying health effects of air pollution and focus on changes in the gut microbiome in infants and on the role of reactive oxygen species in inflammation. Several studies are assessing the relationship between air pollution exposure and various health outcomes, including asthma incidence in three Danish cohorts and prefrontal connectivity and behavioral outcomes in adolescents. Two studies were also initiated during this reporting period; one will examine the effects of long-term exposure to ultrafine particles on several mortality and morbidity outcomes, and the other study will develop statistical methods for analyzing complex air pollution mixtures and health outcomes by using causal inference-based approaches.
- Under open solicitations for research that falls within the broader HEI Strategic Plan 2020-2025 but outside major RFA topics, two studies of wildfires and agricultural burning were initiated.
Transport and Urban Health
- A special HEI panel, charged with reviewing the current state of the science concerning the health effects from exposure to traffic-related air pollution continued its rigorous review of the literature in an update of HEI’s well-cited 2010 review. The report completed peer review, and the panel has responded to review comments with report revisions as appropriate. The report will be published June 2022.
- To improve our understanding of exposure and health effects from traffic-related air pollution, research continued in three studies that are evaluating health effects of exposure to traffic-related emissions and noise in urban settings, taking into account transportation modes and access to green space. The 4-year studies are expected to be completed in 2023. An additional study focuses on mobile monitoring campaigns using Google street-view cars and should be completed in 2022. A study that explored how traffic activity metrics, land-use parameters, and transport of pollutants influence near-road air pollutant concentrations was completed and will be published July 2022.
Global Health
- Various ongoing studies are conducted in countries in Europe and Asia as described above, ensuring the global relevance of our work in settings that represent low and high levels of air pollution. In addition, a study that analyzed long-term air pollution exposure and cause-specific mortality in several cohorts in Asia concluded and is expected to be published in 2022. A new study that is funded under our new investigator award will examine associations of long-term maternal exposures to air pollution and environmental noise with adverse birth outcomes and lower respiratory infections in Africa.
- In addition, with separate funding from other sources, HEI continued its work on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), including disease burdens attributed to ambient air pollution sources in developing countries (published in December 2021) and estimation of NO2 concentrations and asthma across the globe [Anenberg et al., 2022]. In Eastern Europe, HEI worked with partners in the European Union to focus on GBD results in countries with relatively high levels of pollution and produced special reports on air pollution and health in Bulgaria and Serbia (released in May 2022). HEI continued its capacity building efforts in India in collaboration with the All India Institute for Medical Sciences and the Indian Institute for Technology-Delhi, resulting in a new website (https://capherindia.org) to facilitate collaboration among researchers. Additional efforts are under way to establish HEI’s first connections in Africa in collaboration with local GEO-Health hubs.
Detailed information on the ongoing studies can be found here: https://www.healtheffects.org/research/ongoing-research
Future Activities:
Highlights of the activities for the next reporting period include the following:
- Work will continue with more than 30 HEI-supported studies that have been funded under various programs during the year. This research program is the largest that HEI has had underway in 2 decades.
- In the accountability area, seven studies in the United States and China are underway; two studies are expected to be completed and enter review in the next reporting period. An eighth study in the United States is expected to start in August 2022.
- Research on health effects at low levels of air pollution will be completed during the next year. HEI will publish the final Phase 2 report for the Canadian study. The investigators are also expected to publish the results of their collaborative work, which should conclude in December 2022. HEI anticipates also publishing an overall synthesis of the program in collaboration with the Review Panel in the next reporting period.
- Studies in the research program on the interaction of air pollution exposure and Covid-19 health outcomes will continue into 2023; two studies are expected to be completed and will enter review in the next reporting period.
- The five studies to improve assessment of air pollution exposure will continue into 2023, and the two studies on wildfire and agricultural burning will continue into 2023.
- In the area of exposures and health effects from traffic-related air pollution, the traffic literature review will be published in June 2022. The three studies of traffic-related air pollution, noise, socioeconomic status, and health are expected to be completed and enter review in 2023. The study on mobile monitoring campaigns using Google street-view cars is also expected to be completed and published in 2023.
- Two new investigator (Rosenblith) studies are also expected to be completed and enter review in this reporting period – one on air pollution and asthma incidence, and the other on mechanisms of formation of reactive oxygen species.
- HEI will complete its review of the applications from the non-tailpipe emissions RFA and fund new studies in this area. It will also consider a possible RFA for satellite data in health applications given a webinar series held in April-May 2022.
- HEI will continue its research planning for a possible new research programs in the area of environmental justice with a targeted workshop scheduled for October 2022 to inform areas in which HEI might be able to play a constructive role.
- HEI will continue to work on several cross-cutting areas, for example, finding the best mechanisms for data sharing and data access, including disadvantaged populations in its research, and applying the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in all its operations.
- In addition, with separate funding from other sources, HEI plans to continue its Global Health program. HEI expects to publish the 2022 State of Global Air (SoGA) report and special reports that use the SoGA data that are focused on specific geographic regions or cities. Initiatives will continue to focus on sources of air pollution in Eastern Europe, new studies of exposure and health outcomes in India, and new efforts in Africa.
References:
Anenberg SC, Mohegh A, Goldberg DL, Kerr GH, Brauer M, Burkart K, Hystad P, Larkin A, Wozniak S, Lamsal L. Long-term trends in urban NO2 concentrations and associated paediatric asthma incidence: estimates from global datasets. Lancet Planet Health. 2022 Jan;6(1):e49-e58. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00255-2.
Journal Articles on this Report : 8 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 37 publications | 37 publications in selected types | All 12 journal articles |
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Blanco MN, Gassett A, Gould T, Doubleday A, Slager DL, Austin E, Seto E, Larson TV, Marshall JD, Sheppard L. Characterization of Annual Average Traffic-Related Air Pollution Concentrations in the Greater Seattle Area from a Year-Long Mobile Monitoring Campaign. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. 2023;56(16):11460-11472. |
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Blanco MN, Bi JZ, Blanco MN, Bi JZ, Austin E, Larson TV, Marshall JD, Sheppard L, Austin E, Larson TV, Marshall JD, Sheppard L. Impact of Mobile Monitoring Network Design on Air Pollution Exposure Assessment Models. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:57(1):400-450. |
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Ganjji A, Youseffi O, Xu JS, Mallienen K, Lloyd M, Wang A, Bakhtari A, Weichenthal S, Hatzopoulou M. Design, calibration, and testing of a mobile sensor system for air pollution and built environment data collection:The urban scanner platform. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION 2023;317:120720. |
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Haddad P, Joss MK, Vienneau D, Atkinson R, Brock J, Chang H, Forastiere F, Hoek G, Kappler R, Lurmann F, Sagiv S, Samoli E, Smargiassi A, Szpiro A, Patton AP, Boohaard H, Hoffman B. Long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and stroke:A systematic review and meta-analysisINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYGIENE AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH2023;247:114079 |
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Morgan ZEM, Bailey MJ, Trifonova DI, Naik NC, Patterson WB, Lurmann FW, Chang HH, Peterson BS, Goran MI, Alderete TL. Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution is associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH 2023;22(1):11. |
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Sim SY, Blanco MN, Bi JZ, Larson TV, Sheppard L. Exposure assessment for air pollution epidemiology:A scoping review of emerging monitoring platforms and designs. ENVIORONMENTAL RESEARCH 2023;223:115451. |
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Willis MD, Schrank D, Xu C, Harris L, Ritz BR, Hill EL, Hystad P. A population-based cohort study of traffic congestion and infant growth using connected vehicle data. ScienceAdvances 2022;8(43):eabp8281. |
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Hoffmann B, Roebbel N, Gumy S, Forastiere F, Brunekreef B, Jarosinska D, Walker KD, van Erp AM, O'Keefe R, Greenbaum D, Williams M, Krzyzanowski M, Kelly FJ, Brauer M, Bruyninckx H, Boogaard H (2020). Air pollution and health:recent advances in air pollution epidemiology to inform the European Green Deal:a joint workshop report of ERS, WHO, ISEE and HEI. European Respiratory Journal, 56:2002575. |
CR839981 (2020) CR839981 (2021) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Air quality, Accountability, Global research, Public healthRelevant Websites:
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.