The Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health has received an $8
million Science to Achieve Results grant from the
Environmental Protection Agency to establish a center to
study the health effects of particulate matter, the
microscopic particles that pollute the air. The Johns
Hopkins Particulate Matter Research Center will map the
health risks of particulate matter across the United States
over the next five years by analyzing national databases on
air pollution, mortality and hospitalization. Researchers
also will conduct detailed monitoring and collect
particulate matter samples nationwide to determine how
their makeup affects pulmonary and cardiovascular
health.
Particulate matter, also referred to as particle
pollution, is an airborne mixture of solid particles and
liquid droplets. The solid particles come in numerous
shapes and sizes and may be composed of many different
chemical components. Fine particles, defined as 2.5
micrometers or less in size (approximately 1/30th the size
of a human hair), can penetrate deep into the body's
respiratory system. Airborne particulates come from a
variety of sources, including coal-burning power plants,
factories, construction sites, cars, trucks, buses, tilled
fields, unpaved roads, stone crushing and the burning of
wood. Other particles may be formed in the air when gas
emitted from burning fuels reacts with sunlight and water
vapor.
Previously, researchers at the School of Public Health
demonstrated an association between particulate matter
levels and mortality nationwide. Other research studies at
the school have shown associations between particulate
matter and premature death from cardiopulmonary causes,
hospitalization for respiratory or cardiovascular diseases
and exacerbation of respiratory diseases.
The new center will be directed by Jonathan Samet,
chair of the
Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public
Health.
"Our air is full of particulate matter, whether it
comes from large power plants or from motor vehicle traffic
in our own neighborhoods," Samet said. "Particulate matter
pollution is a well-established problem, but we want to
find out which particles are the most injurious to health
so that their sources can be controlled."
Scientists in the Johns Hopkins Particulate Matter
Research Center will collaborate with colleagues from the
University of Chicago, University of Maryland, Yale School
of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Georgia College &
State University and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
at Columbia University.
The grant is one of five totaling $40 million awarded
to universities across the nation to establish five centers
to study the particulate matter component of air pollution.
The centers will integrate multiple scientific disciplines
to advance understanding of how to reduce the health
impacts of particulate air pollution. Clinical scientists
will work with health physicists, engineers, statisticians,
epidemiologists and toxicologists to determine the
characteristics and sources of particles and their most
severe effects. The five research centers will focus on
human susceptibility, mechanisms of health effects,
exposure-response relationships and the crosscutting issue
of linking health effects with particulate matter sources
and components.
The other grants were awarded to Harvard University,
the University of Rochester, the University of California
at Davis and the University of California at Los
Angeles.
Donald S. Welsh, EPA mid-Atlantic regional
administrator, said, "These research centers will further
improve our understanding of how and in what manner
particulate matter negatively impacts human health. While
the United States has made noticeable progress over the
last four decades in reducing air pollution, substantial
concern still remains about the health effects of particle
pollution."
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