Particulate Matter

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Research Report 83
Douglas W. Dockery
C Arden Pope III
Richard E Kanner
G Martin Villegas
Joel Schwartz
1999

Drs. Douglas Dockery at the Harvard School of Public Health and C. Arden Pope III at Brigham Young University speculated that exposure to PM might lead to a transient drop in blood oxygenation, which might have serious consequences in humans with heart or lung problems. The investigators designed a study to increase the possibility of observing PM effects by testing a potentially at-risk group (the elderly) at a time of year that historically had experienced relatively high levels of PM (the winter).

Workshop Report
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
Health Effects Institute
1998

Daniel L. Albritton and Daniel S. Greenbaum, cochairs. Report of the PM Measurements Research Workshop, Chapel Hill NC, July 22 and 23, 1998. Aeronomy Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder, CO, and Health Effects Institute, Cambridge, MA.

Communication 5
Health Effects Institute
1997

Communication 5 contains proceedings of a workshop held in Cambridge, MA, December 3–4 1996. Presentations included: Current Understanding of the Health Effects of Particles and the Characteristics That Determine Dose or Effect; Particle Formation in Combustion; The EPA Particle Emissions Testing Procedure; Characterizing Particulate Matter in Motor Vehicle Exhaust; Atmospheric Aerosol Transformation; Generating Particles for Laboratory Studies; and Issues and Research Needs for Particle Characterization.

Special Report
Health Effects Institute
1997

The Phase I.B Report of the Particle Epidemiology Evaluation Project. The Health Effects Institute began the Particle Epidemiology Evaluation Project in 1994 to evaluate the emerging epidemiologic evidence of a relation between particulate air pollution and daily mortality. In Phase I.B, Drs. Jonathan M. Samet and Scott L. Zeger and their colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (1) compared approaches for controlling the effects of weather variables when analyzing the connection between air pollution and daily mortality, primarily focusing on Synoptic Weather Categories, an approach newly proposed by Dr. Laurence S. Kalkstein of the University of Delaware; and (2) evaluated the association between particulate air pollution and daily mortality in the Philadelphia metropolitan area using statistical models that included data for five pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (referred to as criteria pollutants).

Special Report
Health Effects Institute
1995

The Phase I.A Report of the Particle Epidemiology Evaluation Project. The Health Effects Institute began the Particle Epidemiology Evaluation Project in 1994 to evaluate the emerging epidemiologic evidence of a relation between particulate air pollution and daily mortality. In Phase I.A, Drs. Jonathan M. Samet and Scott L. Zeger and their colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (1) reconstructed from original sources the data set for Philadelphia used in earlier studies and confirmed previous numerical results from analyzing these data; (2) developed an analytic approach (including new statistical methods) based on the Philadelphia data set; and (3) applied this approach to data sets for six locations: Philadelphia; Utah Valley; St. Louis, MO; Eastern Tennessee; Birmingham, AL; and Santa Clara County, CA.

Research Report 68-I
Joe L Mauderly
M Burton Snipes
Edward Barr
Steven A Belinsky
James A Bond
Antone L Brooks
I-Yiin Chang
Yung S Cheng
Nancy A Gillett
William C Griffith
Rogene F Henderson
Charles E Mitchell
Kristen J Nikula
1994

Dr. Mauderly and coworkers exposed F344/N rats to clean air or to one of two levels (2.5 or 6.5 mg of particles/m3 of diesel exhaust or air) of either emissions from a light-duty diesel engine or carbon black particles. The exposures lasted for 16 hours/day, 5 days/week, for 24 months. The carbon black particles were similar to the soot particles in the diesel engine exhaust; however, they contained markedly lower amounts of adsorbed organic compounds.

Communication 3
Health Effects Institute
1994

HEI conducted the Environmental Epidemiology Planning Project in order to identify research needs and opportunities in selected areas of environmental epidemiology. Working groups in each selected area prepared documents composed of individually authored papers. The Planning Project documents were originally published in Environmental Health Perspectives (December 1993, Vol. 102).

Special Report
Health Effects Institute
1991

The Special Report Asbestos in Public and Commercial Buildings: A Literature Review and Synthesis of Current Knowledge (1991) describes the findings of the Asbestos Literature Review Panel, which was charged to determine what was known, not known, and uncertain about the risks of exposure to asbestos in public buildings.

Research Report 3
TT Crocker
DK Bhalla
1986

The pulmonary epithelium is a cellular, avascular layer of tissue that is the first point of contact between the lung and inhaled pollutants. Previous research has indicated that altered epithelial permeability may be an early marker of subsequent lung damage. Dr. Crocker and colleagues at the University of California, Irvine sought to study the study the sites of epithelial injury in rat airways following inhalation of formaldehyde, ozone, and nitrogen dioxide.