The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designated Washington University in St. Louis as the lead institution for a "Particulate Matter Supersite." The St. Louis -- Midwest Supersite will monitor fine particle matter air pollution in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
The comprehensive, collaborative program is designed to measure pollutants at one core site and three different satellite sites within metropolitan St. Louis. Allied studies with separate funding will investigate relationships between different pollutants and human illnesses ranging from cardiovascular disease to pulmonary illnesses.
The project officially began in January 2000 and runs through December 2003 and will be funded at about $3.5 million. Between January 1, 2001 through Dec. 31, 2001, sustained measurements will be made with time resolutions ranging from a few seconds to daily, depending on the measurement type. The final two years of the project will be devoted to chemical characterization of certain collected samples, data analysis and reporting on results.
Jay R. Turner, D.Sc., assistant professor of chemical engineering and civil engineering and director of Washington University's Air Quality Laboratory, is principal investigator of the project that involves a consortium of universities and research institutes. Collaborators are: the Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nev.; Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Palo Alto, Calif.; Harvard University School of Public Health; University of Maryland, College Park, Md.; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
"The study is designed to support a range of data needs," said Turner. "For example, the scientific community will benefit from such a detailed study of air pollutant levels, personal exposure and health ramifications. This will help EPA set appropriate air quality standards. There also are immense benefit for the Midwest in general and the St. Louis region in particular, as we will have a better grasp of our particulate matter air pollutant burdens and their impacts on human health.
"There have been recent detailed studies of, say, Los Angeles and Denver. However, these are not necessarily characteristic of St. Louis and other urban areas in the middle of the country in terms of emissions, meteorology, human exposures and so on. This study will provide valuable information to the area's state and local agencies charged with addressing compliance with air quality standards."
Investigators with the St. Louis-Midwestern Supersite include experts in measurement methods development, particle chemistry and physics, field studies, data processing and analysis, source apportionment, exposure assessment and quality assurance. Working with Turner will be three other Washington University colleagues, all veteran air pollution researchers. They are; Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., an atmospheric chemist who is Washington University executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts and Sciences; Bret Schichtel, Ph.D., research associate with the University's Center for Air Pollution Impact and Trends Analysis (CAPITA); and Warren White, Ph.D., research associate in chemistry in Arts and Sciences and a CAPITA researcher Air pollution measurements -- the focus of the St. Louis Supersite as funded by EPA -- will be integrated with three large health effects programs: the EPA/Harvard Center on Ambient Particle Health Effects; the NIEHS/Harvard Program Project on Ambient Particles Cardiac Vulnerability; and the EPRI Particle Exposure Assessment Program.
These health studies will correlate the air pollution data gathered by the St. Louis-Midwest Supersite and will:
- investigate relationships between personal exposures and outdoor concentrations, and examine the health effects of chronic exposures
- identify the biological mechanisms responsible for particle health effects
- identify susceptible populations
- investigate the relative toxicity of the different particle types.
A sophisticated array of sampling instruments will allow researchers to detect and monitor numerous particle properties including their size, mass and composition. The instrumentation will enable researchers to establish when various pollutants were emitted in the area and ideally link the emissions to human population illnesses. Measurements will be conducted throughout a full year at the core site, located in a north St. Louis city residential neighborhood. This site will provide a context for pollution episodes as well as a time component to relate pollutants to illness rates.
A movable instrument platform will rotate between three undetermined satellite sites in the greater St. Louis region and collect about three weeks of successive days measurements at all sites during each season. Researchers will use the satellite sites to examine the impact of local pollutant sources and to investigate the ways that pollutants are dispersed.
"The particles that we'll capture contain significant information regarding their nature and origin, but the information is often a very noisy signal," Turner said. "We have very sophisticated equipment to sort the information out. In conjunction with similar programs to be implemented in New York City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Houston, Fresno and Los Angeles, we hope to arm the scientific community with an enhanced understanding of particulate matter air pollution sources, transport and effects."