Health Effects Institute 2015 Annual Conference

Chairs: Jared Cohon, Carnegie Mellon University and Robert O'Keefe, HEI Board of Directors and Health Effects Institute

Attention to climate change worldwide and to air pollution in the developing world is growing. This session will present and discuss the major trends in energy use and the potential implications for health and climate. We will include domestic and global trends and energy actions to reduce emissions (e.g., from coal); the potential for reducing household pollution by moving households to advanced energy options (i.e., to electricity); and enhanced energy efficiency in the mobile and other sectors.

Chairs: David Eaton, University of Washington–Seattle and Chair of HEI Research Committee and James Merchant,University of Iowa and Chair of HEI Review Committee.

We will introduce members of the HEI scientific committees and briefly report on HEI's activities. Topics will include the introduction of the 2014 recipient of the Walter A. Rosenblith New Investigator Award and a report from the Special Committee on 21st Century Oil and Gas Development. A recently completed health outcomes study will also be featured along with comments from the HEI Review Committee.

Chair: Dan Greenbaum, Health Effects Institute

In 2013, HEI charged a multidisciplinary expert panel with the task of evaluating two recent epidemiologic studies of exposure to diesel exhaust and lung cancer for their potential use in quantitative risk assessment, in particular for the characterization of the exposure–response relationship. The first was a study of a large cohort of US nonmetal miners conducted by Debra Silverman of the National Cancer Institute and Michael Attfield of the National Institutes of Occupational Health and their colleagues. The second was the most recent study by Eric Garshick of the Veterans Administration Boston Healthcare System and his colleagues of a cohort of male workers employed in the unionized US trucking industry. This session will highlight key issues explored during in the Panel’s evaluation and will present the Panel’s full conclusions regarding use of these studies for quantitative risk assessment.

Chairs: Mark Frampton,University of Rochester Medical Center and Armistead Russell, Georgia Institute of Technology, both on HEI Review Committee

Nitrogen dioxide is derived from combustion sources, including on-road and off-road vehicles, and is among the pollutants for which the US Environmental Protection Agency has established National Ambient Air Quality Standards and the European Union has set limit values. This session will discuss current and future technologies aimed at controlling tailpipe emissions of NO2 and other oxides of nitrogen, and the challenges and successes in lowering NO2 concentrations in urban areas. Recent evidence on the effects of NO2 on organs other than the lung will also be presented.

Chairs: David Eaton, and Stephanie London, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and HEI Review Committee 

Although effects of environmental toxicants on the brain have been known for a long time, studies of the effects of air pollution on the brain at different ages are relatively recent. This session will provide an overview of the mechanisms by which air pollutants may affect the brain and how to study them, what is known about possible developmental effects of exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and early childhood, and what neurodegenerative diseases may be associated with air pollution exposure in adults.

Chairs: Michael Brauer, University of British Columbia, Canada and HEI Review Committee, and Allen Robinson, Carnegie Mellon University and HEI Research Committee

The HEI Perspectives 3 (released in 2013) concluded that the scientific literature did not support strong conclusions about the independent effects of ambient ultrafine particles (UFPs) on human health. Limitations in study size and design, in measurement of exposure to UFPs, and in the analysis of UFP as an individual pollutant rather than as one component of the traffic pollutant mixture were the reasons behind the report’s conclusions. Recent studies have raised additional questions about the contributions to UFP exposure of nucleation events, airports, and other sources. This session draws lessons from a range of studies on UFPs for designing effective research strategies to evaluate the health effects associated with long-term UFP exposures.