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2005 Progress Report: A Study of Personal Exposure to Air Toxics Among a Subset of the Residential U.S. Population (VOC Project)
EPA Grant Number: R828678C004Subproject: this is subproject number 004 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R824834
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: Mickey Leland National Urban Air Toxics Research Center (NUATRC)
Center Director: Beskid, Craig
Title: A Study of Personal Exposure to Air Toxics Among a Subset of the Residential U.S. Population (VOC Project)
Investigators: Beskid, Craig
Institution: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute , University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
EPA Project Officer: Stacey Katz/Gail Robarge,
Project Period: January 2, 2001 through December 31, 2005 (Extended to December 31, 2008)
Project Period Covered by this Report: January 2, 2005 through December 31, 2006
RFA: Mickey Leland National Urban Air Toxics Research Center (NUATRC) (1997)
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Targeted Research
Description:
Objective:The primary objectives of this research project are to:
- Characterize the distribution of exposures to selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for a representative subset of the U.S. population. The population for the VOC Project is a representative subset of individuals between the ages of 20 and 59 years who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) during 1999-2001 and includes approximately 1,000 persons. Personal exposures for this group were obtained for 48-72 hour sampling periods using personal exposure badges during the 3-year period. Information on levels of exposure to these compounds is essential to determine the need for regulatory mechanisms to reduce the levels of air toxics to which the general population is exposed.
- Investigate any potential associations in this population between personal exposures to selected VOCs and demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral characteristics, as well as health status indicators. Data for these investigations will be drawn from the interviews and physical examinations conducted as part of the NHANES survey and from an activity questionnaire designed for use in this study.
Under the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)-National Urban Air Toxics Research Center (NUATRC) collaborative agreement, data were collected for the 3-year period 1999-2001 for this population. The VOC Project provides a profile of personal exposures to a group of VOCs in this national population. No other data set like this exists, as far as we know. Because of the wide variety of demographic and lifestyle information collected from these subjects in the main part of the NHANES survey, there are many opportunities for additional research with these data.
NCHS has now set the schedule for publicly releasing data from the NHANES Project to every 2 years instead of every 3 years. Under this schedule, the 1999-2000 VOC Project data set is eligible for public release, but the 2001 data set can only be made available through the NCHS Research Data Center.
In April 2005, NCHS released the 2-year data set for the VOC Project on its Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhanes/NHANES99_00.htm 
. The VOC Project data files are listed on this site under Laboratory Files as “Lab 21, Volatile Organic Compounds (subsample).” VOC exposure data and activity data obtained from the VOC Project questionnaire are included for 659 participants. Personal exposure assessments are included for the following VOCs: benzene, chloroform, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, ethylbenzene, methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), tetrachloroethylene, toluene, trichloroethylene, o-xylene, and m/p-xylene.
As part of the review of data from Year 3 of the VOC Project, NCHS has requested further information regarding data submitted by the laboratory contractor during one period in 2001. NUATRC staff are working with NCHS staff to resolve the situation, and members of the Expert Panel have been asked to assist in clarifying the issues that have been raised.
Now that the 2-year data set has been released, individual researchers will be able to use these data to conduct analyses and prepare publications. It is the aim of the NUATRC to encourage further use of this data set for research activities by the above-mentioned Request for Application (RFA) and the manuscripts that principal investigators will publish.
Future Activities:- The NUATRC intends to release an RFA for proposals that would utilize the VOC Project data set to investigate associations between personal exposures to one or more of these VOCs and individual lifestyles and characteristics.
- Awards will be made for proposals submitted in response to the RFA, and after these projects are completed, results will be published in peer-reviewed journals.
- It is anticipated that review of the 1999-2001 VOC Project data set will be completed and that the data will be released by NCHS in the Research Data Center.
- A joint NUATRC-NCHS report will be written describing the VOC Project. It will include discussion of the exposures data collected and questionnaire results and how they relate to previous exposure assessment results, as well as a discussion of any new interpretations. Exposure data will be presented and will be modeled on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals.” It will be submitted to a peer-review evaluation and published as joint NUATRC-NCHS report.
air pollution, urban, monitoring, exposure, methods, indoor air, volatile organic compounds, VOCs, particulate matter, PM, environmental policy, exposure, health risk assessment, physical processes, risk assessments, susceptibility/sensitive population/genetic susceptibility, air toxics, genetic susceptibility, acute health effects, acute cardiovascular effects, acute exposure, acute lung injury, air contaminant exposure, air quality, airborne urban contaminants, airway disease, aldehydes, assessment of exposure, atmospheric particulate matter, cardiac arrest, cardiopulmonary response, children, children's environmental health, chronic health effects, copollutants, copollutant exposures, environmental hazard exposures, fine particles, health effects, human exposure, human health risk, human susceptibility, inhaled pollutants, long-term exposure, lung inflammation, particulate exposure, sensitive populations, susceptible subpopulations, toxics,
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HUMAN HEALTH, POLLUTANTS/TOXICS, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Air, Scientific Discipline, Health, RFA, PHYSICAL ASPECTS, Susceptibility/Sensitive Population/Genetic Susceptibility, Risk Assessment, Biology, Risk Assessments, genetic susceptability, Health Risk Assessment, Physical Processes, air toxics, Chemicals, Atmospheric Sciences, particulate matter, Environmental Chemistry, Exposure, Air Pollution, biomarkers, exposure assessment, environmental hazard exposures, airborne urban contaminants, acute exposure, Acute health effects, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), air contaminant exposure, co-pollutants, air quality, cardiopulmonary response, fine particles, industrial air pollution, cardiopulmonary responses, human health risk, lung inflammation, toxics, acute cardiovascular effects, air pollutants, chronic health effects, PM 2.5, sensitive populations, acute lung injury, atmospheric chemistry, inhaled, atmospheric particulate matter, copollutant exposures, long term exposure, human susceptibility, demographics, behavioral characteristics, human exposure, particulate exposure
Relevant Websites:
http://www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/mleland/
Progress and Final Reports:
2001 Progress Report
2002 Progress Report
2003 Progress Report
2004 Progress Report
Original Abstract
Main Center Abstract and Reports:
R824834 Mickey Leland National Urban Air Toxics Research Center (NUATRC)
Subprojects under this Center:
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R824834C001 Air Toxics Exposures Among Teenagers in New York City and Los Angeles - A Columbia-Harvard Study (TEACH)
R824834C002 Cardiopulmonary Response to Particulate Exposure
R824834C003 VOC Exposure in an Industry Impacted Community
R824834C004 A Study of Personal Exposure to Air Toxics Among a Subset of the Residential U.S. Population (VOC Project)
R824834C005 Methods Development Project for a Study of Personal Exposures to Toxic Air Pollutants
R824834C006 Relationship Between Indoor, Outdoor and Personal Air (RIOPA)
R824834C007 Development of the "Leland Legacy" Air Sampling Pump
R824834C008 Source Apportionment of Indoor Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Urban Residences
R824834C009 Development of a Personal Cascade Impactor Sampler (PCIS)
R824834C010 Testing the Metals Hypothesis in Spokane
R828678C001 Air Toxics Exposures Among Teenagers in New York City and Los Angeles—A Columbia-Harvard Study (TEACH)
R828678C002 Cardiopulmonary Effects of Metal-Containing Particulate Exposure
R828678C003 VOC Exposure in an Industry Impacted Community
R828678C004 A Study of Personal Exposure to Air Toxics Among a Subset of the Residential U.S. Population (VOC Project)
R828678C005 Oxygenated Urban Air Toxics and Asthma Variability in Middle School Children: A Panel Study (ATAC–Air Toxics and Asthma in Children)
R828678C006 Relationship between Indoor, Outdoor and Personal Air (RIOPA). Part II: Analyses of Concentrations of Particulate Matter Species
R828678C007 Development of the “Leland Legacy” Air Sampling Pump
R828678C008 Source Apportionment of Indoor PAHs in Urban Residences 98-03B
R828678C009 Development of a Personal Cascade Impactor Sampler (PCIS)
R828678C010 Testing the Metals Hypothesis in Spokane
R828678C011 A Pilot Geospatial Analysis of Exposure to Air Pollutants (with Special Attention to Air Toxics) and Hospital Admissions in Harris County, Texas
R828678C012 Impact of Exposure to Urban Air Toxics on Asthma Utilization for the Pediatric Medicaid Population in Dearborn, Michigan
R828678C013 Field Validation of the Sioutas Sampler and Leland Legacy Pump – Joint Project with EPA’s Environmental Technology Validation Program (ETV)
R828678C014 Performance Evaluation of the 3M Charcoal Vapor Monitor for Monitor Low Ambient Concentrations of VOCs
R828678C015 RIOPA Database Development
R828678C016 Contributions of Outdoor PM Sources to Indoor and Personal Exposures: Analysis of PM Species Concentrations” Focused on the PM Speciation and Apportioning of Sources
R828678C017 The Short and Long-Term Respiratory Effects of Exposure to PAHs from Traffic in a Cohort of Asthmatic Children