Traffic and Respiratory Health

描述(申请人提供)：交通流量在过去二十年里一直在稳步增长，是当地空气污染的一个重要来源，与典型的国家空气质量网络监测点相比，“当地”很可能涵盖较小的区域(例如，大约500米到1公里的邻域范围)。环境保护局(EPA)监测点旨在代表城市范围内(例如，4至100公里)的人类接触情况。随着使用更高效燃料(即柴油)的经济压力，与交通有关的标志，如二氧化氮(NO2)和元素碳(EC)的水平可能会上升，导致敏感人群呼吸影响的风险增加。与交通相关的污染物，包括NO2和含有EC的颗粒物污染，一直与不利的健康影响有关，NO2是美国环保局监测的标准污染物。在1994至2000年间，超过1100名儿童和2300名妇女参与了我们在康涅狄格州和马萨诸塞州中部进行的关于呼吸健康的前瞻性队列研究，该地区包括已经并仍未达到EPA空气质量标准的地区。要分析空气污染对健康的影响，我们必须依靠EPA空气质量监测点测量的高质量但空间有限的污染物数据。尽管有这一限制，我们已经证明了污染的时间变异性对呼吸道健康的不利影响：例如，随着每日空气污染水平的增加，哮喘儿童出现日常症状和/或使用药物的风险。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，我们建议以高于EPA监测仪测量结果的空间和时间分辨率来估计交通产生的污染物。我们的目标是估计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。我们计划在较大的暴露区域(12x12千米网格--大约)内使用NO2和EC的估计来捕捉区域污染源造成的背景污染水平。我们14,600平方公里研究区域内的100个网格)由一个综合的气象排放模型产生，该模型包括区域交通、土地利用、气象、地形和排放源。这项研究的主要目的是利用我们大量的健康信息档案，使用我们改进的暴露估计来检查交通产生的污染对东北地区呼吸健康的影响。在我们的研究人群中，婴儿、幼儿和怀孕的哮喘妇女可能对空气污染特别敏感。我们项目的新颖性是首次使用复杂大气模型中的污染物估计来研究短期暴露在空气污染中对呼吸道发病率的影响。我们提议的研究的优点包括这两方面的改进 在可应用于大型流行病学研究的暴露估计技术中，以及在分析呼吸健康影响时使用这些暴露估计。与公众健康的相关性：该项目开发的暴露评估技术将推动空气污染流行病学研究中暴露估计的领域，并为评估交通对公共健康的影响提供一个重要工具。改进的健康影响评估应该为当前的空气质量标准在多大程度上保护我们地区的敏感人群提供重要信息。

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. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The exposure assessment techniques developed as a result of this project will advance the field of exposure estimation in epidemiological studies of air pollution and provide an important tool for assessing the public health impact of traffic. Improved health effect estimates should provide important information for how well current air quality standards protect sensitive populations in our region.