Grantee Research Project Results
2022 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, 2022 through March 31,2023
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 is actively managing and reviewing over 30 studies on a variety of relevant topics, initiated two new studies, issued two requests for applications (RFAs), and released a systematic review of the literature on traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) and health. A list of ongoing studies (as of March 31, 2022) is provided in Table 1 (attached).
Highlights of HEI activities are provided below.
Accountability: Testing the Links Between Air Quality Actions and Health
- Under its accountability program, one study to qualify monetized societal health benefits associated with emissions reductions in major source sectors entered review. Two studies – one evaluating a national school bus diesel retrofit program and another assessing national and local programs to reduce emissions from motor vehicles in Houston, Texas – entered the final research phase. Two studies newly initiated last period – one comparing the effects of selected policies that targeted mobile vehicles and electricity generating units to improve air quality and another developing national, fine-scale, daily PM2.5 source impact exposure estimates – got underway. Two studies that are evaluating the effect of Chinese national policies to reduce air pollution on mortality and a Chinese program to subsidize clean energy for home cooking and heating continued to make progress. Finally, one study funded under the air pollution and Covid-19 program (see below) to investigate the effect of pandemic lockdowns on air quality and health outcomes also continued to make progress.
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 published in the last reporting period with the third study in a large Canadian cohort completed and published this reporting period. Collaborative work with the three study teams is ongoing, and publications are in process.
- In the research program on the interaction of air pollution exposure and Covid-19 health outcomes, one study to investigate the association between air pollution and risk of severe outcomes in the Danish population entered review. Two studies – one evaluating the interaction between long-term air pollution exposure and neighborhood vulnerability to adverse COVID-19 outcomes and another investigating the risk of severe outcomes in a Spanish population – entered the final research phase. Another U.S. study assessing the relationship between air pollution exposure and COVID-19 incidence, complications, and mortality made substantive progress, and the other study in this program was noted above in the accountability discussion.
- 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. The overall goals of this program are to develop approaches that can be applied to long-term epidemiology studies and to assess the benefit of increasingly sophisticated models and approaches. All studies made substantive progress during this reporting period. HEI also held a webinar series in April-May 2022 on satellite data in health applications; a workshop summary was published and made available on the HEI website.
- Additional research that is funded through our new investigator award to support researchers at the early stages of their career continued. Two studies entered review – one investigating the role of reactive oxygen species in inflammation and another investigating the association between air pollution exposure and asthma in Danish cohorts. Another study examining the effects of long-term exposure to ultrafine particles on several mortality and morbidity outcomes entered the final research phase. The other studies in this category made substantive progress during this reporting period -- one investigating the relationship between air pollution exposures and changes in the gut microbiome in infants, another assessing the relationship between air pollution exposure and prefrontal connectivity and behavioral outcomes in adolescents, and a final one developing 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 made substantive progress during this reporting period.
Transport and Urban Health
- A special HEI panel, charged with reviewing the current state of science on the health effects from exposure to TRAP completed review; the report was published June 2022. Several papers have been published, and several more are pending. Capitalizing on the recommendations in that report, HEI issued a new RFA, Assessing Health Effects of Traffic-Related Air Pollution in a Changing Urban Transportation Landscape.
- To improve our understanding of exposure and health effects from TRAP, research continued in three studies that are evaluating the influence of noise, green space, and socioeconomic status with one study entering review this reporting period. A new investigator study that focused on mobile monitoring campaigns using Google street- view cars entered review this reporting period.
- To investigate the importance of non-tailpipe emissions, HEI initiated two new studies during this reporting period. One is assessing short-term respiratory health effects in non-smoking adults with mild to moderate asthma during and after sequential exercise exposures to three contrasting air quality environments in London, United Kingdom. The other is conducting real-world field measurements to estimate and understand population exposure to non-tailpipe versus tailpipe particulate matter.
- Detailed information on the ongoing studies described above can be found here: https://www.healtheffects.org/research/ongoing-research
Environmental Justice
- Consistent with its cross-cutting topic of sensitive populations, HEI launched a new research program in environmental justice. To inform its work, HEI held a targeted workshop in October 2022 that convened multiple stakeholders to identify community needs, important research gaps, and possible barriers for conducting effective research; a workshop summary was published and made available on the HEI website. HEI also co- hosted a webinar with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Leveraging Air Pollution Research Advancements for Environmental Health Policy Decisions; a webinar summary was produced and made available on the HEI website.
- To begin implementation of its environmental justice program, HEI convened an advisory council and an oversight panel to help guide and oversee this work and began development of two research tracts for this program. For more detailed information, see https://www.healtheffects.org/about/environmental-justice-program.
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 in the publication stage. A study that is funded under our new investigator award is examining associations of long-term maternal exposures to air pollution and environmental noise with adverse birth outcomes and lower respiratory infections in Africa.
- With separate funding from other sources, HEI continued its work on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD), including support for a systematic review on air pollution and tuberculosis. In partnership with Dr. Susan Anenberg, HEI also released the first-ever global report on air quality and health in cities in August 2022. In Eastern Europe, using GBD data and other evidence, HEI worked with partners to produce a series of reports and related factsheets on air pollution and health for Southeast Europe (May 2022), Bulgaria (June 2022), and Serbia (September 2022). In June 2022, HEI also co-hosted a hybrid workshop on air pollution and health in Bulgaria with the Medical University of Plovdiv. HEI continued its efforts to support a research network led by All India Institute for Medical Sciences and the Indian Institute for Technology-Delhi – CAPHER-India. In addition, HEI's Global Health Oversight Committee reviewed applications in response to RFIQ 21-3 and identified three potential studies in India for funding. HEI also started engagement in East Africa, including hiring a new staff member based in Kenya, releasing a report on air pollution and health in Africa (October 2022), and conducting a 2.5-day workshop on air pollution and health in East Africa (March 2023). In January 2023, HEI also released an interactive literature database on studies on air quality and health effects of air pollution in East African countries, including Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. More information on the global health program can be found at https://www.healtheffects.org/about/global.
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. Many studies will enter review and be published in the upcoming reporting period.
- In the accountability area, seven studies in the United States and China are underway. Five studies have or are expected to enter review in the next reporting period.
- Regarding research on health effects at low levels of air pollution, the investigative teams are expected to publish the results of their collaborative work. HEI anticipates also publishing an overall synthesis of the program in collaboration with the Review Panel in the next reporting period.
- All studies in the research program on air pollution exposure and Covid-19 health outcomes have or are expected to enter review in the next reporting period.
- All five studies to improve assessment of air pollution exposure are expected to enter review in the next reporting period, and the two studies on wildfire and agricultural burning will continue into 2024.
- All three studies of TRAP and the influence of noise, green space, and socioeconomic status have or are expected to enter review in 2023. The study on mobile monitoring campaigns using Google street-view cars is expected to be published in 2023. The two studies on non-tailpipe emissions will continue into 2024.
- Two new investigator (Rosenblith) studies are also expected to be published in this reporting period – one on air pollution and asthma incidence and the other on mechanisms of formation of reactive oxygen species. Another study on air pollution exposure and behavioral outcomes in adolescents is expected to enter review.
- For the environmental justice program, HEI expects to issue two RFAs in the upcoming report period – one will be modeled after its accountability research program, and the other will be a multi-stage, community-driven, solution-oriented RFA that focuses on air pollution and cumulative impacts.
- HEI expects to hold a workshop to inform the next stage of innovative and policy relevant research on health effects of exposure to particulate matter. Considering research priorities identified in this workshop, HEI will issue an RFA in 2024.
- With separate funding from other sources, HEI plans to continue its Global Health program. HEI expects to publish the 2023 State of Global Air (SoGA) report in Fall 2023. In East Africa, HEI will conduct a scoping review on health effects of air pollution and explore the possibility for funding pilot studies. In India, HEI expects to fund 1-2 research studies, conduct related trainings, and expand the scope of the CAPHER-India research network to other countries in South Asia.
Journal Articles on this Report : 4 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 37 publications | 37 publications in selected types | All 12 journal articles |
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Boogard H, Atkinson RW, Brook JR, Chang HH, Hoek G, Hoffman B, Sagiv SK, Samoli E, Smargiassi A, Szpiro AA, Vienneau D, Weuve J, Lurmann FW, Forastiere F. Evidence Synthesis of Observational Studies in Environmental Health:Lessons Learned from a Systematic Review on Traffic-Related Air Pollution. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES2023;131(11):115002. |
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Lloyd M, Ganji A, Xu J, Venuta A, Simon L, Shang M, Saeedi M, Yamanouchi S, Apte J, Hong K, Hatzopoulou M, Predicting spacial variations in annual average ultrafine particle concentrations in Montreal and Toronto, Canada:Integrating land use regression and deep learning models. ENVIRONMENTAL INTERNATIONAL 2023;178:10816. |
CR839981 (2022) |
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Stanimirova I, Rich DQ, Russell AG, Hopke PK. A long-term, dispersion normalized PMF source apportionment of PM2.5 in Atlanta from 2005 to 2019. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT 2023;(312). |
CR839981 (2022) |
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Willis MD, Harris L, Campbell EJ, Sawyer E, Harleman M, Ritz B, Hill EL, Hystad P. A population-based cohort study of electronic tolling, traffic congestion, and adverse birth outcomes. ENVIRONMENTAL INTERNATIONAL 2024;183:108355. |
CR839981 (2022) |
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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.