Air Pollution

This report provides the first systematic look at the health effects of exposures to emissions from a new-technology heavy-duty diesel engine. Included in this report are results obtained in rats and mice exposed for 1 and 3 months (and some results in rats at 12 months) to exhaust from a 2007-compliant diesel engine with aftertreatment to reduce particulate matter concentrations. Part 1 describes the core inhalation study by Drs. Jake McDonald and Joe Mauderly of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, with results on general organ toxicity, lung histopathology, pulmonary function, and markers of inflammation and oxidative stress in blood and lung lavage fluid. Parts 2 and 3 describe studies by Drs. Jeffrey Bemis of Litron Laboratories and Lance Hallberg of the University of Texas Medical Branch, respectively, assessing genotoxic endpoints in the exposed rodents. Part 4 describes a study of vascular markers by Daniel Conklin of the University of Louisville. The Preface to this report contains background information about the planning and designing of the study, including decisions regarding the diesel exhaust dilutions and the choice of rodent strains.

This report reviews new vehicle fuels and technologies that are likely to be commercially available within the next 10 years in the United States and other industrialized countries at a level that could result in significant population exposure. It highlights expected changes in emissions and other effects from the use of each technology and fuel, along with any life-cycle and regulatory issues.

This report describes the first set of coordinated time-series studies ever undertaken in Asian cities: four time-series studies of the health effects of air pollution in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Wuhan. These studies were intended to help bridge the gaps between studies conducted in different locations around the globe.

HEI Communication 12 describes a project by Dr Scott Zeger and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that was funded by HEI to make data and software from the National Morbidity, Mortality, and Air Pollution Study (NMMAPS) available to the wider research and policy communities. This Communication contains the Project Report, which describes the Internet-Based Health and Air Pollution Surveillance System (iHAPSS), along with Comments from some members of the HEI Health Research and Review Committees and other experts who had used the data.