Grantee Research Project Results
A Comprehensive, Multidisciplinary Assessment of Children's Personal, Outdoor, and Indoor Exposure to Particulate Matter and Air Toxics in Southern California
EPA Grant Number: U915394Title: A Comprehensive, Multidisciplinary Assessment of Children's Personal, Outdoor, and Indoor Exposure to Particulate Matter and Air Toxics in Southern California
Investigators: Shendell, Derek G.
Institution: University of California - Los Angeles
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: September 1, 1998 through June 1, 2001
Project Amount: $86,159
RFA: STAR Graduate Fellowships (1998) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Fellowship - Health Risk Assessment , Academic Fellowships , Human Health
Objective:
The overall goal of this research project is to establish a scientific foundation for effective, timely, public health-enhancing intervention strategies (i.e., risk management). The specific objective of this research project is to conduct the comprehensive exposure assessment of young children across microenvironments and times of day (time-activity patterns), sources (natural and human), and natural variability (meteorology and topography). The Southern California Center for Airborne Particulate Matter (SCCAPM) strives to improve scientific comprehension of the complex relationship between particulate matter (PM) and air toxics exposure and human health through an integrated, multidisciplinary approach involving exposure, epidemiology, toxicology, dosimetry, and biostatistics. SCCAPM projects answer its own objectives as well as research priorities identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Research Council.
Approach:
Outdoor, indoor, and personal exposures of adults and children to PM will be measured and evaluated by mass, elemental, chemical, and source-apportionment analyses in the other research cores. Nonsmoking asthmatic and nonasthmatic adults and their children will be included. Monitoring will occur continuously ("real time") for 48 hours during each of two seasons to capture higher ventilation (spring, fall) and lower ventilation (winter, summer) seasons. MIE DataRAMs, and possibly nephelometers, will be used to characterize the interdependency of absolute levels and variations in outdoor and indoor microenvironment PM concentrations. Monitoring will include integrated sampling for PM2.5 and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as well as for carbonyl and volatile organic compounds (e.g., benzene). PM2.5 and air toxics data will be compared with historical data from U.S. EPA/California Air Resources Board outdoor PM and air toxics monitoring networks, respectively, for later use in the Regional Human Exposure Model. Time-activity patterns will be assessed from subjects' diaries, and standard instructions and examples of entries will be developed.
Supplemental Keywords:
fellowship, air pollution, exposure assessment, fine particles, particulates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs, volatile organic compounds, VOCs, aldehydes, air exchange rates, indoor/outdoor ratios, time-activity patterns, microenvironment, particulate matter, PM, PM2.5, Regional Human Exposure Model, REHEX, asthma, asthmatic, children, air toxics, carbonyl, nephelometers, benzene., RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, Health Risk Assessment, Epidemiology, Children's Health, Social Science, Sociology, epidemeology, policy issues, science and policy, children, environmental healthProgress and Final Reports:
The 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.