Traffic and Respiratory Health

描述（由申请人提供）：交通流量在过去二十年中稳步增长，是当地空气污染的重要来源，“当地”很可能比典型的国家空气质量网络监测点所代表的面积更小（例如，约500米至1公里的社区尺度）。环境保护署（EPA）的监测点旨在反映城市范围内（例如4至100公里）的人类暴露情况。在使用更高效燃料（如柴油）的经济压力下，与交通相关的标志物，如二氧化氮（NO2）和元素碳（EC）的水平可能会上升，导致敏感人群呼吸系统影响的风险增加。与交通有关的污染物，包括二氧化氮和含ec的颗粒污染，与不利的健康影响有关，二氧化氮是美国环保署监测的一种标准污染物。在1994年至2000年期间，超过1100名儿童和2300名妇女参加了我们在康涅狄格州和马萨诸塞州中部进行的呼吸健康前瞻性队列研究，该地区包括一直和仍然未达到EPA空气质量标准的地区。为了分析空气污染对健康的影响，我们不得不依赖环保署空气质量监测点测量的高质量但空间有限的污染物数据。尽管存在这一限制，但我们已经证明了污染的时间变异性对呼吸系统健康的不利影响：例如，哮喘儿童的每日症状和/或药物使用风险随着每日空气污染水平的增加而增加。利用地理信息系统（GIS）技术和来自各种空间相关来源的数据，我们建议开发交通产生的污染物的估计，其空间和时间分辨率比EPA监测仪提供的测量结果更高。我们的目标是估计一个社区内住宅周围缓冲区（例如500米半径）内交通造成的污染水平，即住宅规模的污染水平。我们计划利用更大暴露区域（12 × 12公里网格-约12公里）内二氧化氮和EC的估计值来捕捉由区域来源引起的背景污染水平。通过综合气象排放模型（包括区域交通、土地利用、气象、地形和排放源）生成的100个网格（我们的14,600平方公里研究区域）。本研究的主要目的是利用我们大量的健康信息档案，利用我们改进的暴露估计来检查东北地区交通污染对呼吸系统健康的影响。在我们的研究人群中，婴儿、幼儿和患有哮喘的孕妇可能对空气污染特别敏感。我们项目的新颖之处在于首次使用复杂大气模型的污染物估计来研究短期暴露于空气污染对呼吸道疾病的影响。我们提出的研究的优势包括这两方面的改进

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Traffic, which has been steadily increasing over the past two decades, represents an important local source of air pollution, with "local" most likely encompassing a smaller area (e.g., ~500 m to 1 km neighborhood-scale) than is represented by a typical National Air Quality Network monitoring site. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitoring sites are intended to represent human exposure on an urban-scale (e.g., 4 to 100 km). With the economic pressure to use more efficient fuel (i.e. diesel fuel) levels of traffic-related markers, such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and elemental carbon (EC) will likely rise resulting in an increased risk for respiratory effects in sensitive populations. Traffic-related pollutants, including NO2 and EC-containing particle pollution, have been associated with adverse health effects, and NO2 is a criteria pollutant monitored by the EPA. Between 1994 and 2000, over 1,100 children and 2,300 women participated in our prospective cohort studies of respiratory health conducted in Connecticut and central Massachusetts, a region including areas that have been and remain in "non-attainment" with EPA air quality standards. For analyses of the health effects of air pollution we have had to rely on the high quality, but spatially limited pollutant data measured at EPA air quality monitoring sites. In spite of this limitation, we have demonstrated adverse respiratory health effects with the temporal variability of pollution: e.g., risk of daily symptoms and/or medication use among asthmatic children with increases in daily levels of air pollution. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and data from a variety of spatially-related sources, we propose to develop estimates of traffic-generated pollutants with higher spatial and temporal resolution than measurements from EPA monitors can provide. Our goal is to estimate levels of pollution due to traffic within buffers (e.g. a 500 m radius) around a residence within a neighborhood, i.e., residential-scale pollution levels. We plan to capture background pollution levels due to regional sources using estimates of NO2 and EC within larger exposure areas (12x12 km grids - approx. 100 grids in our 14,600 km2 study area) produced by an integrated meteorologic emissions model that includes regional traffic, land use, meteorology, topography, and emissions sources. The primary aim of this study is to use our improved exposure estimates to examine the impact of traffic-generated pollution on respiratory health in the Northeast using our substantial archive of health information. Infants, young children and pregnant asthmatic women, groups represented in our study populations, may be especially sensitive to air pollution. The novelty of our project is the first ever use of pollutant estimates from sophisticated atmospheric models to study the effects short-term exposure to air pollution on respiratory morbidity. The strengths of our proposed research include both improvements in exposure estimation techniques that can be applied to large epidemiological studies, and use of these exposure estimates in the analysis of respiratory health effects.