Publications

This report describes a study evaluating the feasibility of studying potential changes in air quality and health associated with the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ), which went into effect in 2008 and restricts entry of older, more polluting vehicles into Greater London. Based on their earlier study of London's Congestion Charging Scheme, Dr. Kelly and colleagues conducted emissions and exposure modeling to estimate the projected effects of LEZ implementation. They also assessed the feasibility of using medical records from private practices to evaluate the relationships between exposure to traffic and indicators of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

This report describes a study that tested whether emissions from traffic caused an air toxics "hot spot" in a neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. Dr. Spengler and colleagues hypothesized that vehicle-related emissions from heavy traffic at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, one of the nation's busiest border crossings and a potential air pollution hot spot, would result in elevated downwind levels of mobile-source air toxics (MSATs) and other traffic-related pollutants. The investigators measured levels of a large number of MSATs as well as six criteria pollutants using both fixed-site and mobile monitoring in order to examine the relation between traffic at the bridge and the spatial distribution of ambient pollutant concentrations at the bridge and in an adjacent neighborhood.

This report describes a study that was funded under HEI's research program aimed at measuring the possible health impacts associated with actions taken to improve air quality (health outcomes research). Dr. Kelly and colleagues used a multifaceted approach to exploring the impact of the Congestion Charging Scheme on air quality, which involved a variety of emissions and exposure modeling techniques, analysis of air monitoring data, and a newly developed assay for the oxidative potential of particulate matter collected on filters at urban backgrounds and roadside monitors.

This report reviews new vehicle fuels and technologies that are likely to be commercially available within the next 10 years in the United States and other industrialized countries at a level that could result in significant population exposure. It highlights expected changes in emissions and other effects from the use of each technology and fuel, along with any life-cycle and regulatory issues.

This report investigates methods with the high sensitivity and low limits of detection needed to analyze a wide range of chemical species in particulate matter collected with personal samplers. Dr. Schauer and colleagues developed sensitive methods to detect trace metals, nonpolar organic compounds, and polar organic compounds in personal samples collected in exposure studies. Methods used in this study are of interest to researchers seeking to gain greater insight into the relationships between the components of inhalable particulates and their health effects.

This comprehensive literature review to come out of HEI's Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) program builds on an initial assessment conducted in 2004 and describes the current scope of the Asian literature on the health effects of outdoor air pollution, enumerating and classifying more than 400 studies. In addition, the report includes a systematic and quantitative assessment of 82 time-series studies of daily mortality and hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

This report explores the possible physiological basis for epidemiologic results suggesting that people over the age of 55 are more sensitive than younger people to the effects of exposure to particulate matter. Dr. Debra Laskin and colleagues hypothesized that this sensitivity resulted from the lung cells of the elderly producing less of the cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α (a cell protein involved in systemic inflammation), as compared with the lung cells of the young after exposure to air pollution.

This report describes a study by Dr. Ryan Meng and colleagues to determine the role of stereochemistry in the cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of three major butadiene metabolites. This study is a part of HEI's program of research in air toxics; one important aim of that program has been to fill key gaps in risk assessment for some of the most important chemicals. Butadiene is present in motor vehicle exhaust and other emissions and is listed by the U.S.

This report describes a study by Dr. Barbara Zielinska and colleagues to investigate the changes that fresh diesel emissions undergo when they are mixed with ambient air, due to reactions with sunlight and other pollutants. The investigators also evaluated how those changes may affect the toxic properties of diesel emissions. The study used a relatively new (2003 model) light duty diesel engine (although not one with a diesel filter) and provides insight into the complexity of diesel exhaust composition in the real world.

A Special Report of the Institute's Panel on the Health Effects of Traffic-Related Air Pollution. This report is the most comprehensive and systematic review to date of the scientific literature on emissions, exposure, and health effects from traffic-related air pollution. It includes conclusions about the populations exposed around major roads, the associations between exposure to air pollution from traffic and human health, and important remaining data gaps. Compared with the initial pre-print version released in May 2009, this final version has undergone data verification and editorial changes; however, the overall conclusions did not change.

This report describes a study to investigate the suggested association between exposure to traffic-derived pollution and increases in symptoms of airway diseases, including exacerbation of asthma. Dr. Jack Harkema and colleagues assessed the effects of two pollutant mixtures, concentrated ambient particles (CAPs) and diesel exhaust, on airway inflammatory and allergic responses in a rodent model of asthma. The study was one part of an HEI 3-study program of animal and human research on these important questions.