Comprehensive Exposure and Health Effect Assessment in Susceptible Subpopulations.

This project integrates personal exposure assessment, exposure characterization, and the study of health effects into a single research effort. Each of the three proposed sub-projects has a specific emphasis and set of objectives. The sub-projects are integrated to maximize our ability to comprehensively study air pollution and its association with health effects.

• Project 2a is a health effect panel study that will do comprehensive health monitoring of three susceptible and one healthy subpopulations in Seattle, Spokane, and other cities. The susceptible individuals proposed for study are adults who are 65 years of age or older and have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or cardiovascular disease or children with asthma. The health endpoints to be measured in adult subjects are peak flow, pulse rate, pulse oximetry, blood pressure, and heart rate variability. The health endpoints to be measured in the children with asthma are pulmonary function and symptoms.
• Personal exposure measurements necessary for associating the health effects with air pollutants will be collected on study participants in Project 2b. Intensive exposure and dosimetry measurements among various susceptible subpopulations will be collected to examine the contribution of outdoor sources to personal exposures to PM. In addition, comprehensive exposure and dosimetry models will be developed to estimate personal PM exposures and doses for subjects who are not monitored. These measurements will be tested for associations with acute effects from more than 250 susceptible and healthy subjects. Project 2b includes a subcontract with Candis Claiborn, Washington State University, who will measure semi volatile organic compounds simultaneously with the indoor, outdoor, and personal monitoring described above.
• We will extensively characterize chemical and physical parameters of different sizes of ambient and indoor aerosols in simulated airway conditions in Project 2c, the dosimetry assessment substudy.

We will also be able to estimate personal exposures and doses for members of these subpopulations who do not have intensive exposure monitoring linked to their health assessment. We will further be able to test for acute health effects of air pollutants across the four subpopulations. We expect to identify specific components of PM such as mass, particle number, or chemical constituents, that are potentially causative agents for adverse health. The hypothesis tested in Project 2 is that higher exposures to PM and associated organic compounds from combustion prominent in the Northwestern US are associated with detectable differences in acute cardiorespiratory physiologic health measures among elderly susceptible subpopulations, and with both acute and chronic pulmonary function measurements and symptoms among young asthmatic children. The organic compounds of concern include particle-bound organic matter, e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s) and the semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC) that are associated with wood smoke and fossil fuel combustion.

Personnel

• Candis Claiborn PhD, WSU Department of Environment Engineering.
• Dave Covert, PhD, UW JISAO, Department of Atmospheric Sciences
• Lara Gundel, PhD. Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
• Timothy Larson, Ph.D., UW Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• L-J. Sally Liu, SD, UW Department of Environmental Health
• Jane Q Koenig, PhD. UW Department of Environmental Health

• Research Scientist: Carol Trenga, PhD; Therese Mar, PhD; Tim Gould, MS; Yanbo Pang, PhD; Jeff Sullivan, MD
• Research Technician: Karen Jansen, MS; David Hardie
• Research Associate: Chang-Fu Wu, PhD
• Data Entry Supervisor: Steve Wilkins
• Statisticians: Eugene Kim, PhD, Bryan Goldman, Chris Slaughter, MS, Kristen Shepherd, MS
• and many temporary research technicians who assist with the monitoring and data entry process.

• Graduate Research Assistants: Ranil Dhammapala (WSU), Jorge Jimenez (WSU), Katia Harb (UW), Carrie Fields (UW), Allen Ryan (UW), Iyad Kheirbek (UW), Jon Schildcrout (UW)