Air Monitoring for the East Bay Children's Respiratory Health Study
As part of the "Clean Air for California Communities" initiative, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), a division of Cal EPA, is studying the respiratory health of a San Francisco East Bay Area population of 3rd and 4th grade children including sub-populations chronically exposed to lower and higher traffic-related pollutant levels. In support of this study, the PSD&C group designed and conducted a comprehensive air-monitoring program at ten East Bay elementary schools. This program was designed to specifically address the question of whether, within a geographic area with approximately uniform levels of regional air pollution, there are significant differences in ambient concentrations of traffic-related air pollutants adjacent to major roadways compared with sites further away.
The monitoring program conducted in spring and fall 2001, focused on pollutants that are primarily produced by motor vehicle traffic. These pollutants are carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx and NO2), individual VOCs associated with gasoline and diesel vehicles, fine particulate matter and black carbon. The study design emphasized pollutant measurements made simultaneously at the ten schools over extended periods. A supplemental study was conducted in spring 2002 to investigate the correlation between school-based measurements and exposure throughout the neighborhoods surrounding three schools.
Link to California OEHHA's Air Pollution and Children's Health web site http://www.oehha.org/public_info/facts/airkids.html
Contacts: Al Hodgson, Brett Singer