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2007 Progress Report: Air Toxics Exposures Among Teenagers in New York City and Los Angeles—A Columbia-Harvard Study (TEACH)
EPA Grant Number: R828678C001Subproject: this is subproject number 001 , 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: Air Toxics Exposures Among Teenagers in New York City and Los Angeles—A Columbia-Harvard Study (TEACH)
Investigators: Kinney, Patrick L. , Aggarwal, Maneesha , Chillrud, Steven , Johnson, Dave , Pederson, Dee C. , Ramstrom, Sonja , Ross, James M. , Spengler, John D.
Institution: Columbia University - Mailman School of Public Health , Harvard School of Public Health , Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
EPA Project Officer: Stacey Katz/Gail Robarge,
Project Period: January 1, 1997 through January 31, 2005
Project Period Covered by this Report: January 1, 2006 through January 31, 2007
RFA: Mickey Leland National Urban Air Toxics Research Center (NUATRC) (1997)
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Targeted Research
Description:
Objective:This report is the Los Angeles portion of the TEACH study. The New York City portion of the study has been published. A draft final report for the LA portion was received on December 14, 2004. The report was reviewed by external peer-reviewers. To complete the revisions and scientific editing of the report, the study was granted a no-cost extension through June 2005. The comments of the external reviewers and the SAP were communicated to Dr. Kinney. Despite numerous reminders, the NUATRC has not received a revised report from Dr. Kinney.
The purpose of this research effort was to study the personal exposures to urban air toxics experienced by a group of students living in New York City (NYC) and in Los Angeles (LA). The study would provide information on the roles of seasons and days of the week, different meteorological conditions and daily activities on exposures to selected volatile organic compounds (VOC), aldehydes, and metals on particles (<2.5μ) present in the environment. Soluble fractions of selected metals were also assayed for correlations with source measurements. Exposure measurements were made in indoor, outdoor and personal environments. The investigators related these exposures to the apportionment of air toxics among area, point, and mobile sources, as well as non-anthropogenic sources.
Progress Summary:Air toxics exposure data were for 40 inner city LA youth ranging in age from 13 to 17. Subjects were predominantly Hispanic, lived predominantly in attached or detached single family homes, and in neighborhoods with medium to low self-reported motor vehicle traffic. Time-activity patterns were similar to previous surveys of urban youth.
Personal exposures showed the impacts of both indoor and outdoor concentrations, as well as sources that are encountered in unmeasured microenvironments. For pollutants with significant indoor sources, including many of the VOCs, personal exposures showed minimal to moderate relationships to outdoor concentrations. For other pollutants lacking significant indoor sources, including most PM-associated elements and a few VOCs, personal (and indoor) exposures showed strong associations with outdoor levels.
Indoor VOC levels were generally much higher than outdoors, and thus indoor/outdoor ratios were above 1.0 for most compounds. However, I/O ratios closer to 1.0 were observed for a few VOCs, including methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) and some of the other BETX VOCs (benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene and xylenes). I/O ratios tended to be lower in fall than in winter, reflecting increased air exchange during fall compared to winter. Using the indoor and outdoor concentration data, along with air exchange measurements, we estimated indoor source strengths for selected VOCs. Median I/O ratios for PM associated elements were typically close to or below 1.0, reflecting the role played by outdoor sources in driving indoor levels. For analytes with I/O ratios greater than 1.0, I/O ratios decreased with increasing air exchange. For analytes with I/O ratios 1, the ratios consistently increased with increasing AER. These results were similar to the NYC results.
As expected, ambient concentrations of most VOCs were lower than levels measured indoors or on personal samples. Because of the relatively low concentrations measured in ambient air, median outdoor concentrations at the urban fixed site were below the respective limits of detection for several VOCs. Better detection results were obtained for the indoor and personal samples. All median ambient PM2.5 and associated elemental concentrations exceeded limits of detection. A preliminary source apportionment analysis suggested that motor vehicles represented the dominant source of ambient VOC concentrations in both Los Angeles and New York.
In December 2007, the NUATRC made a final attempt to revive the report by contacting the investigators and encouraging them to complete the report by the end of January 2008.
Future Activities:- NUATRC is expecting the revised LA report from Dr. Kinney at the end of January.
- The report will be edited by technical editors and published as a NUATRC report by March 2008.
Publication of final report.
Journal Articles on this Report: 5 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other subproject views: | All 9 publications | 5 publications in selected types | All 5 journal articles |
| Other center views: | All 122 publications | 54 publications in selected types | All 46 journal articles |
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Chillrud SN, Epstein D, Ross JM, Sax SN, Pederson D, Spengler JD, Kinney PL. Elevated airborne exposures of teenagers to manganese, chromium, and iron from steel dust and New York City’s subway system. Environmental Science & Technology 2004;38(3):732-737. |
R828678C001 (2004) R828678C001 (2006) R828678C001 (2007) |
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Chillrud SN, Grass D, Ross JM, Coulibaly D, Slavkovich V, Epstein D, Sax SN, Pederson D, Johnson D, Spengler JD, Kinney PL, Simpson HJ, Brandt-Rauf P. Steel dust in the New York City subway system as a source of manganese, chromium, and iron exposures for transit workers. Journal of Urban Health 2005;82(1):33-42. |
R828678C001 (2005) R828678C001 (2006) R828678C001 (2007) |
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Kinney PL, Chillrud SN, Ramstrom S, Ross J, Spengler JD. Exposures to multiple air toxics in New York City. Environmental Health Perspectives 2002;110(Suppl 4):539-546. |
R828678C001 (2002) R828678C001 (2003) R828678C001 (2004) R828678C001 (2006) R828678C001 (2007) R832141 (2006) |
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Sax SN, Bennett DH, Chillrud SN, Kinney PL, Spengler JD. Differences in source emission rates of volatile organic compounds in inner-city residences of New York City and Los Angeles. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology 2004;14(Suppl 1):S95-S109. |
R828678C001 (2004) R828678C001 (2006) R828678C001 (2007) R832141 (2006) |
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Sax SN, Bennett DH, Chillrud SN, Ross J, Kinney PL, Spengler JD. A cancer risk assessment of inner-city teenagers living in New York City and Los Angeles. Environmental Health Perspectives 2006;114(10):1558-1566. |
R828678C001 (2007) |
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, HUMAN HEALTH, POLLUTANTS/TOXICS, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Air, Scientific Discipline, Health, RFA, PHYSICAL ASPECTS, Susceptibility/Sensitive Population/Genetic Susceptibility, Biology, Risk Assessments, genetic susceptability, Health Risk Assessment, Physical Processes, air toxics, Chemicals, Children's Health, Atmospheric Sciences, Environmental Policy, particulate matter, Environmental Chemistry, Exposure, environmental hazard exposures, airborne urban contaminants, acute exposure, Acute health effects, health effects, indoor air, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), urban air, air contaminant exposure, co-pollutants, children's environmental health, cardiac arrest, air quality, cardiopulmonary response, fine particles, assessment of exposure, human health risk, lung inflammation, toxics, acute cardiovascular effects, chronic health effects, PM 2.5, sensitive populations, acute lung injury, air pollution, airway disease, children, inhaled, atmospheric particulate matter, aldehydes, copollutant exposures, susceptible subpopulations, VOCs, long term exposure, human susceptibility, human exposure, Los Angeles, particulate exposure, inhaled pollutants
Progress and Final Reports:
2001 Progress Report
2002 Progress Report
2003 Progress Report
2004 Progress Report
2005 Progress Report
2006 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