Research Reports

HEI’s mission is to provide credible science to support environmental regulations and other policy decisions. The results of each HEI-funded project undergo peer-review by outside scientists and the Health Review Committee. The HEI Research Reports contain the Investigator’s Report and the Review Committee’s evaluation of the study, summarized in a Commentary or short Critique.

ISSN 1041-5505 (print)        ISSN 2688-6855 (online) 

Research Report 221
Sara D Adar
Meredith Pedde
Richard Hirth
Adam Szpiro
2024

This report presents a study led by Sara Adar of the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Adar and colleagues conducted a thorough accountability study of a program for replacing old diesel school buses with new, lower-emitting buses across the United States.

Research Report 220
Cathryn Tonne
Otavio Ranzani
Anna Alari
Joan Ballester
Xavier Basagaña
Carlos Chaccour
et al.
2024

This study evaluated associations between exposure to outdoor air pollution and risk of hospital admissions, disease severity, and death related to coronavirus disease among 4.6 million adults in Catalonia, Spain, in 2020.

Research Report 219
Marie Pedersen
Shuo Liu
Zorana J Andersen
Anne-Marie Nybo Andersen
Jørgen Brandt
Esben Budtz-Jørgensen
et al.
2024

This report presents a study led by Marie Pedersen of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Pedersen and colleagues examined children’s asthma in four Danish cohorts and focused on exposure to an array of air pollutants, including fine particulate matter, ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and combinations of those pollutants.

Research Report 218
Amir Hakami
Shunliu Zhao
Marjan Soltanzadeh
Petros Vasilakos
Anas Alhusban
Burak Oztaner
et al.
2024

This report presents a study that estimated potential health benefits associated with reducing emissions from transportation and other sources at locations across the United States and Canada. Amir Hakami of Carleton University, Canada, and colleagues estimated the improvement in fine particulate matter concentrations and how many fewer deaths would be expected if fine particulate matter, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide emissions were reduced.

Research Report 217
Scott Weichenthal
Marshall Lloyd
Arman Ganji
Leora Simon
Junshi Xu
Alessya Venuta
et al.
2024

This report presents a study that assessed associations between long-term exposure to outdoor ultrafine particles (UFPs) and black carbon with mortality using several modeling approaches. The investigators applied exposure models developed through mobile monitoring in Toronto and Montreal to 1.5 million Canadian adults residing in both cities.

Research Report 216
Joshua Apte
Sarah E Chambliss
Kyle P Messier
Shahzad Gani
Adithi R Upadhya
Meenakshi Kushwaha
et al.
2024

This report presents the results of a study led by Joshua Apte of the University of California, Berkeley, a recipient of HEI’s Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award. Apte and colleagues evaluated the use of mobile monitoring for several air pollution mapping and exposure assessment applications.

Research Report 215
Manabu Shiraiwa
Ting Fang
Jinlai Wei
Pascale SJ Lakey
Brian CH Hwang
Kasey C Edwards
et al.
2023

This report presents the findings of a study led by Manabu Shiraiwa of the University of California, Irvine, a recipient of HEI’s Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award. Shiraiwa and colleagues evaluated the mechanisms of aerosol-induced reactive oxygen species formation by two pathways in the respiratory tract: by chemical reactions  and by immune cells called macrophages.

Research Report 214
Zorana J Andersen
Jiawei Zhang
Youn-Hee Lim
Rina So
Jeanette T Jørgensen
Laust H Mortensen
et al.
2023

This report presents a study that evaluated whether there is an association between exposure to outdoor air pollution and the risk of COVID-19 incidence, hospitalization, and mortality in a cohort of 3.7 million Danish adults.

Research Report 213
George S. Downward
Roel Vermeulen
2023

This study by Dr. George S. Downward and Dr. Roel Vermeulen from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, addresses a clear research gap by leveraging harmonized data from the Asia Cohort Consortium, a large multicenter collaborative research effort in Asia that began in 2008.

Research Report 207
H Christopher Frey
Andrew P Grieshop
Andrey Khlystov
John J Bang
Nagui Rouphail
Joseph Guinness
et al.
2022

This report presents a study led by H. Christopher Frey of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The investigators measured six air pollutants (nitrogen oxides, ultrafine particles, black carbon, fine particles, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone) near a freeway and in an urban area.