Grantee Research Project Results

2012 Progress Report: Longitudinal Indicators of Policy Impact on Pollution, Exposure and Health Risk

EPA Grant Number: R833991
Title: Longitudinal Indicators of Policy Impact on Pollution, Exposure and Health Risk
Investigators: Burke, Thomas A. , Fox, Mary A.
Institution: The Johns Hopkins University
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2011 (Extended to October 31, 2012)
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2011 through October 31,2012
Project Amount: $499,961
RFA: Development of Environmental Health Outcome Indicators (2007) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category:

Objective:

Objective(s) of the Research Project:   

The objectives of this research are to:

1)      Develop and present state level environmental health outcome indicators that measure changes over time; and

2)      Apply environmental health outcome indicators to evaluate the impact of environmental policies on population exposures and health risks.

Progress Summary:

1.   A discussion of the research performed during the reporting period and results (outputs/outcomes) that have been generated.

Summary of Progress and Activity in 2012:

Policy Inventory State/National policy timeline:

The policy manuscript is nearing completion. Target journals are Environmental Health Perspectives, Environmental Science and Technology or Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI). The JNCI may have particular interest because it was the NCI’s 1975 Atlas of Cancer Mortality that spurred research and policy development to reduce toxic exposures in New Jersey.

Chemical-specific case studies:

Three chemical-specific case studies have been completed. Data collection continued in 2012 focused on TCE in water. The preferred data for TCE are original sampling reports since resources identified in initial searches included only ranges (minimum and maximum) prohibiting the development of summary statistics and meaningful probabilistic analysis. The preferred data have not been located; however, a recent occurrence report does contain median and 90th percentile values (EPA 2010), which were used to support a deterministic analysis of “average” and “high” exposure scenarios.

Administrative: Investigators requested a 1-year no-cost extension to develop manuscripts for the indicator case studies.     

2.  A discussion on difficulties/challenges/changes the Center has (or might) encountered in carrying out its mission, and remedial actions (to be) taken.

No major difficulties were encountered in 2012. To date (from the inception of the grant), changes in personnel and more recent administration and agency changes at the state level have made communication a challenge. Focusing on historical data has remediated this challenge. The lack of a systematic historical archiving of data and the state and regional level has contributed to the difficulty of database development for the indicator case studies. Some of the historical data sets predate computerized retrievable storage.

3.  A discussion of any absence or changes of key personnel involved in the individual projects or Center management.

There were no personnel changes in 2012.

4.  A discussion of expenditures to date and an explanation of any costs that are significantly higher or lower than originally estimated.

To date approximately 75 percent of the total budget has been spent. Overall expenditures for the project are lower than estimated, particularly for salary and travel. Dr. Burke remains an Associate Dean and therefore receives additional salary support from the School. His engagement in the project has been maintained, but his salary support from this project was reduced. Other staffing changes reported previously also contribute to the lower than expected expenditures. 

The budget allocation for travel is also lower than expected. Because the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has extensive electronic archives, data inventory was done electronically and travel for data collection was not necessary.

5.  A discussion of how the quality assurance requirements of the following are being met

The project requires no new laboratory work. The project uses existing environmental monitoring data generated by the New Jersey DEP and developed according to state and federal guidelines for sampling and analysis.

The Quality Assurance Project Plan is being implemented by Dr. Fox. Metadata with necessary details on analytical methods and method detection limits for the environmental monitoring results have been routinely available in the reports used for this project.

Future Activities:

Planned activities for the subsequent reporting period.

In 2013 effort will include:

• Submitting policy manuscript;
• Drafting and submitting case-study manuscript(s);
• Submitting abstract to national public health conference; and
• Sharing findings with NJ DEP and Region II.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 3 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

Mercury, trichloroethylene, benzene, benzo[a]pyrene

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

2009 Progress Report

2010 Progress Report

2011 Progress Report

Final Report