Multipollutant Mixtures

In this issue of HEI Update, read about the Haagen-Smit Clean Air Leadership Award given to HEI President Dan Greenbaum by the California Air Resources Board, the two 2017 recipients of HEI’s Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award, and the progress of HEI studies examining potential health effects at low levels of air pollution. Also in this issue is a recap of HEI’s recent Annual Conference in Alexandria, Virginia.

This report is Part 3 of HEI Research Report 183, Development of Statistical Methods for Multipollutant Research. It describes a study to develop and apply statistical methods to analyze the effects of multipollutant exposures on health, expanding beyond the two-pollutant approaches used in many studies to date. HEI funded three innovative studies in recent years to improve the tools for analyzing complex multipollutant exposures. In this last report from these studies, John Molitor and colleagues describe a Bayesian framework to identify spatial clusters of air pollution exposures — and other covariates such as socioeconomic status — and estimated pregnancy outcomes associated with those clusters, using a data set for Los Angeles county. 

Contents: HEI's Strategic Plan for 2015–2020 Now Under Way;  Greenbaum Chairs NRC Review of U.S. Climate, Health Assessment; O'Keefe Closes Out Successful Run on Key Air Advisory Committee; Communicating Results - HEI Science Highlighted at EPA Workshops HEI in the News - Wide Audience for ACES Findings; Novel Statistical Methods for Studying Pollutant Mixtures; Journal Spotlights NPACT Studies; Eyes on the Future - HEI Sponsors Meet with Research Committee to Discuss the Path Forward;  Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award Announced