Grantee Research Project Results
2006 Progress Report: Urban Air Pollution and Persistent Early Life Asthma
EPA Grant Number: R831861C001Subproject: this is subproject number 001 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R831861
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: Southern California Children's Environmental Health Center
Center Director: McConnell, Rob Scot
Title: Urban Air Pollution and Persistent Early Life Asthma
Investigators: Gilliland, Frank D.
Institution: University of Southern California
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: November 1, 2003 through October 31, 2008 (Extended to October 31, 2010)
Project Period Covered by this Report: November 1, 2005 through October 31, 2006
RFA: Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research (2003) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health
Objective:
The Community Based Participatory Research project will evaluate the relationship between early life asthma and traffic–related air pollution. We are examining this question in a case–control study of asthma persisting to school entry, but with onset earlier in life, in children resident in the same home since before age 2. We also hypothesize that susceptibility to ambient air pollution will vary based on genotype for GSTM1, GSTP1, NQO1, HO-1, and TNF-alpha, genes involved in the biologic response to oxidant air pollutants. Lifetime exposure will be assessed by calibrating home measurements to the extensive historical exposure assessment from a monitor in each community operating continuously during the lifetime of participants. Community participation in study promotion to participants and in data collection and interpretation is enhancing both the quality of Center research and of the environmental action plans for families of children with asthma in ongoing projects of the community partners. A steering committee representing university and community research partners, and policy makers, works closely with the Community Outreach and Translation Core to provide the scientific basis necessary for developing policy for the more widespread protection of children from the effects of air pollution. The specific aims have not been modified. The aims are to:
- Identify the population for the proposed case-control study
- Collect information from parents of participants to assess asthma, activity patterns, and risk factors for asthma, using a structured telephone interview, also to be administered by Community Study Liaisons;
- Assess the relationship between residential exposure to ambient traffic related air pollutants and asthma among cases and controls, using information from the Exposure Assessment and Modeling Core;
- Develop tools for assessment of traffic within 100 meters of homes with COTC Neighborhood Assessment Teams composed of community volunteers selected by community research partners;
- Genotype cases and controls for polymorphisms in GSTM1, GSTP1, HO-1, NQO1 and TNF, and assess how these polymorphisms modify the relationship between air pollutants and asthma;
- Assess the burden of asthma-related disease attributable to air pollution in all children living in two communities represented by the community partners, using results from this study and from existing literature;
- Develop a series of community forums with the COTC to discuss the public health burden of air pollution for asthma;
- Integrate new information on air pollution into the environmental action plans developed with families of children with asthma by all community health workers working in service programs of community partners;
- Foster discussion among partners through an active steering committee and through presentation of results at meetings of partner organizations;
- Participate with the COTC in seminars, community forums and in the critique of policy initiatives by providing the best scientific evidence available on air pollution and childhood asthma.
Progress Summary:
Recruitment for the case control study was completed, and all questionnaire interviews will be completed by the end of October, and we will begin analysis of the case-control data. All three rounds of home air pollution sampling were completed in all communities, and data clean-up and modeling of exposures is under way. Buccal cell collection has been completed, and genotyping is almost complete.
We have published two important complementary papers (in Epidemiology and EHP) describing the relationship between early life asthma and modeled exposure to traffic related pollutants in two different cohorts from the Center, and we have identified susceptible demographic groups based on sex, allergy and parental history of asthma that we think may explain some of the inconsistency in previous literature. USC investigators and community counterparts participated in press-related activities resulting from these papers. We will use these results to estimate the attributable burden of lifetime asthma associated with traffic in Long Beach and Riverside, which is a major interest of the community partners in these cities, and an important goal of the collaboration. In related work, we have found that potentially confounding wildfire exposures in several of our study communities affected the prevalence of asthma symptoms, information that will be important for the further analysis of traffic related pollution effects. We have also observed effects of associations between modeled traffic related exposure and incident asthma in follow-up of the cohort. Investigators also participated in two cross-center methods papers. There is an active CBPR steering committee that has overseen the research interviews with the community staff and guided the joint development with the COTC of a community protocol for the identification of air pollution hot spots, using land use maps, community members’ knowledge of activities in neighborhoods, traffic counting, and measurement of ultrafine particle number in Long Beach and Riverside. This has focused on schools and residential areas with heavy traffic. Important qualitative findings have been the lack of correspondence between land use maps used for pollution modeling and actual land use in areas in Riverside. Results were presented at a community summit of interested groups throughout southern California, and Center members participated in several other workshops and communities, described in more detail in the COTC report. Better data on traffic counts at schools is a priority for the next year.
Future Activities:
We plan to conduct the primary case-control analyses. We plan to complete estimates of burden of exposure associated with traffic and to train our community counterparts to disseminate these results.
Journal Articles on this Report : 8 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other subproject views: | All 145 publications | 93 publications in selected types | All 92 journal articles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other center views: | All 202 publications | 132 publications in selected types | All 131 journal articles |
Supplemental Keywords:
RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, Air, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, HUMAN HEALTH, Environmental Chemistry, Health Risk Assessment, mobile sources, Biochemistry, Environmental Monitoring, Health Effects, Children's Health, Risk Assessment, asthma, traffic, engine exhaust, community-based intervention, airway disease, respiratory problems, automotive emissions, automotive exhaust, Human Health Risk Assessment, susceptibility, childhood respiratory disease, ambient particle pollution, children's environmental health, outreach and educationProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractMain Center Abstract and Reports:
R831861 Southern California Children's Environmental Health Center Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R831861C001 Urban Air Pollution and Persistent Early Life Asthma
R831861C002 Pollution-Enhanced Allergic Inflammation and Phase II Enzymes
R831861C003 Air Pollution, Exhaled Breath Markers, and Asthma in Susceptible Children
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.
Project Research Results
- Final Report
- 2009
- 2008
- 2007 Progress Report
- 2005 Progress Report
- 2004 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
92 journal articles for this subproject
Main Center: R831861
202 publications for this center
131 journal articles for this center