The Health Effects Institute

Ongoing Research

The HEI research program has addressed many important questions about the health effects of a variety of pollutants over the past two decades. These include carbon monoxide, ozone, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides, which are regulated in the US by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. In addition, many air toxics and fuel additives have been studied, including methanol, diesel exhaust and associated compounds, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, aldehydes, and oxygenates added to gasoline. HEI’s current areas of interest are described in the HEI Strategic Plan for the Health Effects of Air Pollution 2010-2015 . This plan emphasizes the "air pollution mixture" with a focus on exposure, epidemiology and toxicology research; evaluating actions to improve air quality (accountability); and emerging technologies and fuels. The choices of which scientific questions to investigate have been made after considering regulatory needs and uncertainties about health effects, and after consultation with sponsors and the scientific community.

HEI has funded theoretical, in vitro, animal, controlled human exposure, and epidemiologic studies. Because HEI’s ultimate goal is to provide data that can be used in regulatory decisions or to provide better information for risk assessment, human studies and studies to improve extrapolation from animals to humans are an important part of HEI’s program. Sometimes the connection between HEI studies and these decisions is direct, but at other times new methods must be developed or biological mechanisms must be understood before studies of human health effects can be launched. Thus, HEI’s research program is comprised of a variety of studies, which in either the near or long term are important for obtaining better information on the human risks of exposure to air pollutants.

Ongoing Studies
Studies are listed by category, and include the primary investigator, the investigator's affiliation, and the working title of the study. Those studies that have been completed and are currently in the review stage are marked with an asterisk (*). Those studies in press are marked with a dagger (†).

Accountability / Health Outcomes	Particulate Matter and Air Pollution Mixtures:
Diesel Exhaust	Epidemiology
Mobile Source Air Toxics	Emissions and Exposure Assessment
Ozone	Mechanisms of Health Effects
Statistical Methods

ACCOUNTABILITY / HEALTH OUTCOMES (* = in review, ^† = in press)
Click here to read more about HEI's Accountability or Health Outcomes research program.

^†Douglas Dockery, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
    Effect of air pollution control on mortality and hospital admissions in Ireland

Frank Gilliland, University of Southern California, San Diego, CA
    The effects of policy-driven air quality improvements on children’s respiratory health

Ying-Ying Meng, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
    Improvements in air quality and health outcomes among California Medicaid enrollees due to
    goods movement actions ― Phase I: Assessing air quality changes

^†Richard Morgenstern, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
    Accountability assessment of Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990

Armistead Russell, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
    Impact of emissions changes on air quality and acute health effects in the Southeast, 1993-2012

Corwin Zigler and Francesca Dominici, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
    Causal inference methods for estimating long term health effects of air quality regulations

---

DIESEL EXHAUST (* = in review, ^† = in press)                                                           Back to top  

Advanced Collaborative Emissions Study (ACES):

    Jake McDonald (Joe Mauderly), Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM
        Development of a diesel exhaust exposure facility and conduct of a chronic inhalation
        bioassay in rats and a 90-day study in mice

    *Jeffrey Bemis, Litron Laboratories, Rochester, NY
        Genotoxicity of inhaled diesel exhaust: examination of rodent blood for micronucleus
       formation

    *Daniel Conklin, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
        Effects of diesel emissions on vascular inflammation and thrombosis

    *Lance Hallberg, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX
        Assessment of the genotoxicity of diesel exhaust from improved diesel engines

[Note that the first results from these studies have been published as HEI Research Report 166]

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MOBILE SOURCE AIR TOXICS (* = in review, ^† = in press)                                    Back to top      

Gunnar Boysen, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AK
    Profiling doses of reactive compounds derived from various air pollutant exposures

---

OZONE (* = in review, ^† = in press)

Allison Fryer, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR
    Air pollution and systemic inflammation of autonomic nerves

Fern Tablin, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA
    Immune effects of episodic ozone and PM exposure during postnatal development

Multicenter Ozone Study in Elderly Subjects (MOSES):

    John Balmes, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

    Philip Bromberg, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

    Mark Frampton, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

    Ann Stoddard, New England Research Institute, Watertown, MA

---

PARTICULATE MATTER AND AIR POLLUTION MIXTURES (* = in review, ^† = in press)

Epidemiology                                                                                                              Back to top  

Jiu-Chiuan Chen, University of Southern California, San Diego, CA
    Particulate air pollutants, risk of cognitive disorders, and neuropathology in the elderly

*Yungling Leo Lee, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taiwan
   Impact of outdoor air pollution on infant and children's health in Taiwan

^†Morton Lippmann, New York University, Tuxedo, NY
    Characteristics of PM associated with health effects

Zhengmin Qian,Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO
   Air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes in Wuhan, China

^†Sverre Vedal, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
    Integrated epidemiologic and toxicologic cardiovascular studies to identify toxic
    components and sources of fine PM

Jun Wu, University of California, Irvine, CA
    Adverse reproductive health outcomes and exposures to gaseous and particulate matter
    air pollution in pregnant women
    Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2010

Emissions and Exposure Assessment                                                                   Back to top  

Stuart Batterman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
   Modeling and analysis of personal exposure to pollutant mixtures: Further analysis of the
   RIOPA Data

*Marc Baum, Oak Crest Institute of Science, Pasadena, CA
    Significance of highly toxic secondary emissions from on-road vehicles

Patrick Ryan, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
   Analysis of personal and home characteristics associated with the elemental
   composition of PM_2.5 in indoor, outdoor, and personal air in the RIOPA study

*Charles Stanier, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
    Development and application of a personal exposure screening model for size-resolved
    urban aerosols. Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2007

*Yifang Zhu, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
    Assessing children's exposure to ultrafine particles from vehicular emissions.
    Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2007

Mechanisms of Health Effects                                                                                 Back to top  

*Thomas Barker, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
    Extracellular matrix stiffness assciated with pulmonary fibrosis sensitizes alveolar
    epithelial cells to PM.
    Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2008

David Rich, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY and
Annette Peters, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany
    Ambient and controlled particle exposures as triggers for acute ECG changes and the role
    of antioxidant status

Jason Surratt, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
    Understanding the health effects of isoprene-derived particulate matter enhanced by
    anthropogenic pollutants

*Qunwei Zhang, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
    Activation of endothelial cells and gene expression in lungs following exposure to
    ultrafine particles  Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2006

---

STATISTICAL METHODS (* = in review, ^† = in press)                                          Back to top 

Brent Coull, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
    Statistical learning methods for the effects of multiple air pollution constituents

John Molitor, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
   Modeling of multi-pollutant profiles with applications to RIOPA study data and to
   indicators of adverse birth outcomes using data from the UCLA Environment and
   Pregnancy Outcomes Study (EPOS)

*Eun Sug Park, Texas A& M University, College Station, TX
    Development of enhanced statistical methods for assessing health effects associated
    with an unknown number of major sources of multiple air pollutants

^†Jamie Robins, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
    New statistical approaches to semi-parametric regression with application to air
    pollution research

Back to top 

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Last updated March 15, 2013