Acute exposures to ozone have been shown in chamber and epidemiologic studies to produce reversible declines in pulmonary function of children. The cumulative effects of repeated ozone exposures on permanent changes in pulmonary function and respiratory symptoms have been observed in animal studies and suggested in human studies. Epidemiologic studies confirming chronic effects of ozone are currently lacking. A particular weakness of most epidemiologic studies of the health effects of air pollution has been misclassification of exposure. The proposed study would build on existing data on the health status of children in Simi Valley, California, a residential community with high ambient ozone levels, using personal monitors for ozone, to quantify individual chronic ozone exposure. The Harvard passive ozone badge has been independently tested and shown to be free of inhibiting interferences, is comparable (+/-12%) to continuous ozone reference monitors, and has a 6% between sample coefficient of variation. The sampler has been used in several exposure studies with a limit of detection of less than 200 ppb-hrs. Over a one-week integration time the sampler can reliably detect concentrations less than 2 ppb. Intensive personal and micro-environmental monitoring ozone exposures will be undertaken across a stratified sample of 320 children ranging from newborns to 10 years of age. The distribution of individual ozone exposures between children by age groups within this community will be evaluated. Age-and sex-specific models will be developed to estimate chronic exposure based on ambient concentrations of ozone as modified by individual, home, spatial, and seasonal characteristics. Heterogeneity of individual chronic ozone exposure will be evaluated. The error variance of the chronic ozone exposure estimates will be quantified through the use of a validation sample. These estimates of heterogeneity and error variance of exposure will be used to evaluate the feasibility of a separate follow- up study of the health effects of chronic ozone exposures among these children.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01ES006370-01A2
Application #
2155234
Study Section
Epidemiology and Disease Control Subcommittee 2 (EDC)
Project Start
1994-09-30
Project End
1996-08-31
Budget Start
1994-09-30
Budget End
1995-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Harvard University
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
082359691
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02115
Xue, Jianping; Liu, Shi V; Ozkaynak, Haluk et al. (2005) Parameter evaluation and model validation of ozone exposure assessment using Harvard Southern California Chronic Ozone Exposure Study data. J Air Waste Manag Assoc 55:1508-15
Xue, Jianping; McCurdy, Thomas; Spengler, John et al. (2004) Understanding variability in time spent in selected locations for 7-12-year old children. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 14:222-33
Lee, Kiyoung; Xue, Jianping; Geyh, Alison S et al. (2002) Nitrous acid, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone concentrations in residential environments. Environ Health Perspect 110:145-50
Geyh, A S; Xue, J; Ozkaynak, H et al. (2000) The Harvard Southern California Chronic Ozone Exposure Study: assessing ozone exposure of grade-school-age children in two Southern California communities. Environ Health Perspect 108:265-70
Lee, K; Vallarino, J; Dumyahn, T et al. (1999) Ozone decay rates in residences. J Air Waste Manag Assoc 49:1238-44