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 (* = in review, † = in press)
Click here to read more about HEI's Accountability research program.*Douglas Dockery, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Effect of air pollution control on mortality and hospital admissions in Ireland†Frank Kelly, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
Congestion Charging Scheme in London: assessing its impact on air quality and health†Frank Kelly, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
The London Low-Emission Zone baseline study*Richard Morgenstern, Resources for the Future, Washington, DC
Accountability assessment of Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990Curtis Noonan, University of Montana, Missoula, MT
Assessing the impact on air quality and children’s health of actions taken to reduce
PM2.5 levels from woodstoves*Chit Ming Wong, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Impact of the 1990 Hong Kong legislation for restriction on sulfur content in fuelJunfeng (Jim) Zhang, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ
Molecular and physiological responses to drastic changes in PM concentration and composition
AIR TOXICS (* = in review, † = in press) Back to top
Click here to read Research on Air Toxics (Program Summary May 1999)
Click here to read Research on Benzene and 1,3-Butadiene (Program Summary March 1999)Multiple Air Toxics
†Eric Fujita, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV
Assessing exposure to air toxics†Paul Lioy, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Piscataway, NJ
Assessing personal exposure to air toxics in Camden, New Jersey*Thomas Smith, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Air toxics hot spots in industrial parks and traffic†John Spengler, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Air Toxics exposure from vehicular emissions at a U.S. border crossing
DIESEL EXHAUST (* = in review, † = in press) Back to top
Click here to read Research on Diesel Exhaust and Other Particles (Program Summary October 2003)*Richard Effros, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, Downey, CA
Exacerbation of allergic inflammation in the lower respiratory tract by diesel exhaust†Debra Laskin, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ
Role of TNF-alpha in diesel exhaust-induced pulmonary injury in elderly mice*Simon Wong, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
The molecular effects of diesel exhaust particulates on respiratory neutral endopeptidaseAdvanced Collaborative Emissions Study (ACES)
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 miceJeffrey Bemis, Litron Laboratories, Rochester, NY
Genotoxicity of inhaled diesel exhaust: examination of rodent blood for micronucleus formationDaniel Conklin, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
Effects of diesel emissions on vascular inflammation and thrombosisLance Hallberg, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX
Assessment of the genotoxicity of diesel exhaust from improved diesel enginesQinghua Sun, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Diesel exhaust exposure and cardiovascular dysfunction: ROS mechanismJohn Veranth, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Lung cell gene transcription responses to diesel exhaust
PARTICULATE MATTER AND AIR POLLUTION MIXTURES (* = in review, † = in press)
Click here to read Research on Particulate Matter (Program Summary May 1999)
Click here to read Research on Diesel Exhaust and Other Particles (Program Summary October 2003)Epidemiology & Statistics Back to top
*Michelle Bell, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Assessment of the mortality effects of particulate matter characteristics
Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2004Brent Coull, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Statistical learning methods for the effects of multiple air pollution constituentsMorton Lippmann, New York University, Tuxedo, NY
Characteristics of PM associated with health effectsEun 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 pollutantsJamie Robins, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
New statistical approaches to semi-parametric regression with application to air
pollution research*Isabelle Romieu, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México
Multi-city study of air pollution and health effects in Latin AmericaSverre Vedal, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Integrated epidemiologic and toxicologic cardiovascular studies to identify toxic
components and sources of fine PMPublic Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) Back to top
Click here for more information on HEI's International research program.†Kalpana Balakrishnan, Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute, Chennai, India
Developing Exposure-response Functions for Air Pollutants from Time-series Analyses –
A Pilot Exercise in Chennai, India*HEI Collaborative Working Group on Air Pollution, Poverty, and Public Health in Ho Chi Minh City
The effects of short-term exposure on hospital admissions for acute lower respiratory infections
in young children of Ho Chi Minh CityHEI Collaborative Working Group on Air Pollution, Poverty, and Public Health in Ho Chi Minh City
The relationship between personal and ambient exposures in Ho Chi Minh City†Haidong Kan, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
A Time-series Study of Ambient Air Pollution and Daily Mortality in Shanghai, China†Zhengmin Qian, Pennsylvania State University, College Park, USA
Ambient Air Pollution and Daily Mortality in Wuhan†Uma Rajarathnam, The Energy and Resources Institute, Delhi, India
Time-series Study on Air Pollution and Mortality in Delhi, India†Nuntavarn Vichit-Vadakan, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Estimating the Mortality Effects of Air Pollution in Bangkok, Thailand†Chit-Ming Wong, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Interaction Between Air Pollution and Respiratory Viruses: Time-series Studies
for Daily Mortality and Hospital Admission†Chit-Ming Wong, on behalf of PAPA team
Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA): A multi-city study for short-term effects
of air pollution on mortality*Timothy Nurkiewicz, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
Pulmonary particulate matter exposure and systemic microvascular function.
Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2005Marc Williams, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Determination of the effects of ambient particulate matter on toll-like receptor signaling
and function in human dendritic cells - Pilot studyQunwei 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 2006Exposure Assessment Back to top
Marc Baum, Oak Crest Institute of Science, Pasadena, CA
Significance of highly toxic secondary emissions from on-road vehiclesMurray Johnston, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Selective detection and characterization of nanoparticles from motor vehicles†Jonathan Levy, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Using geographic information systems to evaluate heterogeneity in indoor and outdoor
concentrations of particle constituents. Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2005*Christopher Paciorek, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Integrating monitoring and satellite data to retrospectively estimate monthly PM2.5 concentrations
in the eastern United States. Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2006†James Schauer, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Source apportionment and speciation of particulate matter for exposure and
health studies. Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2002Charles 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 2007Yifang Zhu, Texas A&M University, Kingsville, TX
Assessing children's exposure to ultrafine particles from vehicular emissions.
Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award 2007
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Copyright © 2010 Health Effects Institute. Please send comments to webmaster@healtheffects.orgLast updated July 9, 2010