EPA awards $8.2 million for particulate pollution center

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the UW $8.2 million over five years for a research center that will study the components of air pollution and how exposure to different particulates can affect health.

“For example, the incidence of asthma has increased substantially over the past decade. The reasons for this increase are uncertain, but it is clear that there is a wide variation in response to inhaled air pollutants among the general population. Some children and the elderly are at particular risk,” says the center’s director, Dr. Jane Koenig, professor of environmental health in UW’s School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

The Northwest Research Center for Particulate Air Pollution and Health is one of five centers funded by the EPA. The agency received 21 applications for funding.

The Northwest Center includes faculty from the departments of Atmospheric Sciences, Biostatistics, Environmental Health, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Epidemiology at the UW, as well as Civil and Environmental Engineering at Washington State University and the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

The center will particularly study fine particles, particulate matter under 2.5 microns in size, known as PM2.5. It seems clear that high levels of PM2.5 in the air are associated with a higher level of illness, though no one is sure why, Koenig says.

It’s tough to study PM because it is a complex mixture of fine particles, rather than a single chemical entity, and its composition differs from place to place.

In one of the center’s first studies, investigators will examine extensive databases of people who’ve died or been admitted to hospitals, and look for association with various levels of many different atmospheric pollutants. The study will use databases such as Medic One’s database of people who’ve had cardiac arrest.

Similar studies will take place in Spokane and Anchorage, Alaska, where different kinds and levels of particulate matter are found in the air.

“Investigators will look at associations between daily air pollution exposure and daily health outcomes. Those daily health outcomes can be either mortality or visits to the emergency room,” Koenig says.

Investigators are also interested in what kinds of particles people are exposed to in their homes and in everyday living, and how this compares with region-wide pollution measurements that now appear in newspapers or on television. Sophisticated equipment will be set up inside homes, and volunteers will wear monitors strapped to their waists to measure the levels of particulate matter that they are inhaling during the day.

The measurements will then be compared to the person’s health. A variety of other samples, including blood and urine, will be taken to determine what kinds of particulate matter individuals are exposed to and how this exposure might be affecting them. “We know behavior plays a big role: how often you go outside and how active you are inside,” Koenig says.

The center will also bring visiting scientists to UW, and try to spread the word about air pollution and research to the public. The center already has a Web site — http://depts.washington.edu/pmcenter/ — and plans to publish a newsletter and hold public workshops on the study results and other aspects of air pollution studies. Funds will also be available for pilot programs to study particulate matter and health.

Scientists are looking for volunteers to participate in the home air monitoring. The subjects must have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. For information, call Dr. Sally Liu at 543-2005. ¶

Walter Neary