The Northwest Center for Particulate Air Pollution and Health is one of five centers around the country funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency to study the effects on human health of particulate air pollution. It is important to estimate these effects accurately. On one hand they could add up to a significant public health burden. On the other hand reductions in particulate pollution beyond what is necessary for public safety could have serious economic impacts. Our planned research, together with that of other groups around the world, will contribute to decisions about air quality standards and to the understanding of how we are affected by the air we breathe

The Northwest PM Center is an interdisciplinary collaboration, with members from the departments of Atmospheric Sciences, Biostatistics, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Epidemiology at UW and Civil & Environmental Engineering at WSU and the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies in Alaska.

In addition to the concentration of PM research expertise in the Pacific Northwest, the region is important because particulate pollution here is very different from that in the Eastern US. The main components here are from car and truck exhaust and burning vegetation. These regional differences offer an opportunity to gain insight into the importance of different components of PM.