Publications

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.

A Special Report of the Institute's Diesel Working Group. Diesel engine emissions have the potential to cause adverse health effects, including cancer and other pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases. However, it is difficult to distinguish the potential health risks attributable to exposure to diesel exhaust from those attributable to other air pollutants. For over a decade, HEI has supported a broad-based research program to evaluate the health risks of diesel emissions, including investigations of carcinogenesis, modeling studies, and emissions characterization. The purpose of this Special Report is to examine what is known, not known, and still uncertain about the health risks of exposure to diesel emissions.

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that is a pervasive air pollutant at ground level. It is a major component of urban smog, forming when emissions from mobile and industrial sources interact with sunlight. In this report, two of studies and in the NTP/HEI Collaborative Ozone Project, were conducted to determine whether prolonged inhalation of ozone produces lasting effects on lung structure, potentially contributing to or aggravating chronic lung disease. Drs. Chang and Pinkerton and their respective colleagues investigated the effects of this prolonged ozone exposure on respiratory tract structure in healthy male and female F344/N rats. 

In two separate studies, Drs. Koenig and Utell examined the effects of exposing healthy subjects and subjects with asthma to combined oxidant and acid pollutants. Each team of investigators conducted studies in which human volunteers received either combined or sequential exposures to oxidant gases and acid aerosols and standard pulmonary function tests were performed and symptoms were recorded. Dr. Koenig and colleagues exposed 28 adolescents with asthma to varying concentrations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfuric acid. Dr. Utell and colleagues examined the effects of sequential exposures to sulfuric acid and ozone on pulmonary function in 30 subjects with asthma and 30 healthy subjects between the ages of 18 and 45. 

Ozone is the major pollutant in smog. It is formed by complex photochemical reactions between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. Motor vehicle and industrial emissions are prominent sources of these compounds. Peak atmospheric ozone concentrations generally occur during the summer months because the photochemical reactions that produce ozone are enhanced by sunlight and high temperature.

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that is a pervasive air pollutant at ground level. It is a major component of urban smog, forming when emissions from mobile and industrial sources interact with sunlight. Prolonged ozone exposure may injure respiratory tissue, leading to the development or exacerbation of chronic lung diseases such as fibrosis or emphysema. An excess of connective tissue can lead to fibrosis and changes in connective tissue are believed to be an underlying cause of emphysema. Dr.

Dr. James Ultman and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University used a fast-responding ozone measurement system, which they had developed with previous HEI support, to noninvasively measure the absorption of inhaled ozone in different regions of the respiratory tract of healthy adult men. While the subject was breathing through the measurement apparatus, a narrow 10-mL bolus of ozone was introduced into the inhaled air at a predetermined point.

This report describes the quality assurance and quality control program developed for the previously reported epidemiologic study of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and respiratory illness in children (Health Effects Institute Research Report 58, Parts I and II). The specific aims of the program were to make certain that data were sufficiently accurate, complete, verifiable, and retrievable.

High doses of inhaled diesel engine exhaust produce lung tumors in laboratory animals and may cause cancer in humans. Nitropyrenes are products of diesel engine exhaust and can be activated by the body\'s metabolism to form highly reactive products that interact with DNA to form DNA adducts. The adducts can interfere with the normal processes of DNA replication and can lead to genetic mutations that may result in carcinogenesis. Dr.

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that is a pervasive air pollutant at ground level. It is a major component of urban smog, forming when emissions from mobile and industrial sources interact with sunlight. The study of the effects of long-term ozone exposure on lung collagen, described in this report, was one of eight studies in a Collaborative Project supported by the NTP and the HEI. The others included studies of lung biochemistry, structure, and function, and one study of nasal structure and function. Dr.

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that is a pervasive air pollutant at ground level. It is a major component of urban smog, forming when emissions from mobile and industrial sources interact with sunlight. Assessing the risk of adverse health effects from such exposures is difficult because only limited data are available on the actual ozone concentrations that people experience. Under the HEI ozone sampler program, three studies were designed to advance the development and testing of personal ozone samplers. The studies were conducted by Dr. Hackney and colleagues at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center (Part I), Dr. Koutrakis and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health (Part II), and Dr. Yanagisawa from the Harvard School of Public Health (Part III). 

Both environmental and genetic factors are believed to contribute to the multistage process that results in carcinogenesis. Therefore, determining the health risks associated with exposure to known and suspected carcinogenic chemicals is essential for informed decision-making by regulatory agencies. Dr. Roger W. Giese and colleagues at Northeastern University developed sensitive and specific techniques for measuring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-DNA adducts, a class of DNA adducts associated with exposure to constituents of diesel emissions and other combustion products.

Devices have been developed to reduce particle emissions from vehicles with diesel engines, such as a trap that filters the particles from the exhaust. Periodically, the trap is cleaned (regenerated) by electric heating, thereby burning the particles before they can clog the trap. There is concern that potentially harmful chemicals associated with the particles may be emitted from the trap during normal use and regeneration. Dr.

HEI's Research Plan to Narrow the Uncertainties. This report of the HEI Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMF) Research Planning Committee presents a 5-7 year research program intended to clarify whether or not there are adverse health effects from exposure of the public to EMF from electric power transmission, machinery, or household appliances.

Carbon monoxide is a ubiquitous air pollutant. It is found in cigarette smoke and emissions from motor vehicles, industrial processes, and poorly ventilated combustion sources. Dr. Penn and his colleagues at New York University Medical Center sought to determine whether chronic exposure to ambient levels of carbon monoxide is also a risk factor for developing atherosclerosis because this disease is the leading contributor to deaths by heart attack and stroke in the United States.

Nitropyrenes, which form during diesel fuel combustion, cause mutations and are carcinogenic in some animals. Dr. Veronica Maher and colleagues at Michigan State University studied the effect of nitropyrene-DNA adducts on gene mutation. The investigators exposed a specific gene, in culture, to each of two nitropyrene derivatives. They then (1) compared the number of adducts formed by each derivative, (2) analyzed the chemical structure of the adducts, and (3) determined in which region of the DNA the adducts formed.

Dr. George Jakab and associates the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health examined the effects of inhaled formaldehyde, an airway irritant that is part of motor vehicle emissions, on alveolar macrophages. The investigators exposed mice to varying levels of formaldehyde alone or to formaldehyde mixed with carbon black particles. Carbon black particles were chosen because of their similarity to combustion derived particles. Different alveolar macrophage functions were evaluated using two assays.

Dr. Klein-Szanto and colleagues at the Fox Chase Cancer Center employed a novel exposure system to explore the capacity of formaldehyde to cause cancerous changes in human epithelial cells. Formaldehyde is classified as a toxic air pollutant and is emitted in exhaust of motor vehicles, but whether or not formaldehyde is injurious to human health is controversial. The investigators obtained autopsy samples from human infant airways and from adult nasal tissue.

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that is a pervasive air pollutant at ground level. It is a major component of urban smog, forming when emissions from mobile and industrial sources interact with sunlight. When inhaled, ozone can cause cough, shortness of breath, and transient changes in breathing patterns; however the health significance of these effects is unknown. Dr. David Thomassen and coworkers examined the ability of ozone to alter the structure and growth characteristics of epithelial cells from rat tracheas in ways consistent with precancerous changes.

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that is a pervasive air pollutant at ground level. It is a major component of urban smog, forming when emissions from mobile and industrial sources interact with sunlight. When inhaled, ozone can cause cough, shortness of breath, and transient changes in breathing patterns; however the health significance of these effects is unknown. Dr. Philip Bromberg and coworkers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill examined whether exposure to ozone alters properties of the airway epithelium.

Nitropyrenes are a class of chemicals found in diesel engine exhaust that can form DNA adducts and are suspected animal carcinogens. Dr. Beland at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences examined the relationship between DNA adducts and cancer in laboratory animals treated with 1-nitropyrene, the major nitropyrene present in diesel engine exhaust. The investigator used state-of-the-art techniques to study DNA adducts formed from 1-nitropyrene under different conditions of exposure, with an emphasis on identifying unique adducts that had not been recognized before.

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that is a pervasive air pollutant at ground level. It is a major component of urban smog, forming when emissions from mobile and industrial sources interact with sunlight. When inhaled, ozone can cause cough, shortness of breath, and transient changes in breathing patterns; however the health significance of these effects is unknown. Drs. Kenneth Donaldson and coworkers at the Institute of Occupational Medicine examined whether exposure to ozone activates white blood cells to release substances that can damage lung tissue.

Nitrogen dioxide is an ubiquitous air pollutant that can react with and damages lung cells when inhaled at high levels. Although outdoor and indoor levels of nitrogen dioxide are usually below the annual standard of 0.053 ppm, peaks can occur that reach up to 10 times this standard. Dr. Mark Utell and coworkers at the University of Rochester examined the human health impacts of higher (peak) levels of nitrogen dioxide that exceed the annual standard. The investigators exposed healthy, nonasthmatic, human volunteers to either nitrogen dioxide or filtered air for three hours.

Dr. Sheps and colleagues assessed the effect of exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) on ventricular arrhythmias in 41 nonsmoking human volunteers with coronary artery disease. On 3 consecutive days, volunteers were exposed in random order to air, 100 ppm CO (target 4% carboxyhemoglobin), and 200 ppm CO (target 6% carboxyhemoglobin), followed by a bicycle exercise test. Radionuclide cardiac ventriculography and ambulatory electrocardiogram were performed at rest and during exercise.