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Introduction: Special Issue of Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health for Air Pollution and Health: Bridging the Gap from Source-to-Health Outcomes
Citation:
SOLOMON, P. A. Introduction: Special Issue of Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health for Air Pollution and Health: Bridging the Gap from Source-to-Health Outcomes . Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health. Springer Science+Business Media B.V, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 5(1):3-8, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for six principal air pollutants (criteria pollutants): carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter in two size ranges [less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and less than 10 μm (PM10)], ozone, and sulfur dioxide http://www.epa.gov/air/criteria.html). While associations have been identified between these pollutants and adverse health effects, considerable uncertainty remains with regards to methods and approaches to understanding which gas or particulate components are most toxic, which sources and source combinations emit these compounds and their precursors, the mechanisms of actions of the pollutants and their causal relationships to adverse health effects, effect of confounding factors that obscure the relationship between toxicity and health, and which populations are susceptible. The pollutant – health relationship is all the more complicated for particulate matter since it is composed of many components and is distributed over a wide range of sizes that differentially deposit in human airways (EPA 2006a [ozone criteria document (CD)], EPA 2006b (Pb CD), EPA 2008a [NOx integrated science assessment (ISA)], EPA 2008b (SOx ISA), EPA 2009 (PM ISA), EPA 2010 [CO ISA]). Air pollution and health research continues to reduce these uncertainties across the source-to-health effects paradigm as described by the National Research Council (NRC 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004), EPA (EPA 2006a, b, 2008a, b, 2009, 2010), and Solomon et al. (2011a and references within).
URLs/Downloads:
Introduction: Special Issue of Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health for Air Pollution and Health: Bridging the Gap from Source-to-Health Outcomes (PDF, NA pp, 43 KB, about PDF)Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health
