The Air Quality Impacts of Road Closures Associated with the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston

Background: The Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Boston, Massachusetts in 2004 provided an opportunity to evaluate the impacts of a localized and short-term but potentially significant change in traffic patterns on air quality, and to determine the optimal monitoring approach to address events of this nature. It was anticipated that the road closures associated with the DNC would both influence the overall air pollution level and the distribution of concentrations across the city, through shifts in traffic patterns. Methods: To capture these effects, we placed passive nitrogen dioxide badges at 40 sites around metropolitan Boston before, during, and after the DNC, with the goal of capturing the array of hypothesized impacts. In addition, we continuously measured elemental carbon at three sites, and gathered continuous air pollution data from US EPA fixed-site monitors and traffic count data from the Massachusetts Highway Department. Results: There were significant reductions in traffic volume on the highway with closures north of Boston, with relatively little change along other highways, indicating a more isolated traffic reduction rather than an across-the-board decrease. For our nitrogen dioxide samples, while there was a relatively small change in mean concentrations, there was significant heterogeneity across sites, which corresponded with our a priori classifications of road segments. The median ratio of nitrogen dioxide concentrations during the DNC relative to non-DNC sampling periods was 0.58 at sites with hypothesized traffic reductions, versus 0.88 for sites with no changes hypothesized and 1.15 for sites with hypothesized traffic increases. Continuous monitors measured slightly lower concentrations of elemental carbon and nitrogen dioxide during road closure periods at monitors proximate to closed highway segments, but not for PM2.5 or further from major highways. Conclusion: We conclude that there was a small but measurable influence of DNC-related road closures on air quality patterns in the Boston area, and that a low-cost monitoring study combining passive badges for spatial heterogeneity and continuous monitors for temporal heterogeneity can provide useful insight for community air quality assessments

Social stressors and air pollution across New York City communities: a spatial approach for assessing correlations among multiple exposures

Background: Recent toxicological and epidemiological evidence suggests that chronic psychosocial stress may modify pollution effects on health. Thus, there is increasing interest in refined methods for assessing and incorporating non-chemical exposures, including social stressors, into environmental health research, towards identifying whether and how psychosocial stress interacts with chemical exposures to influence health and health disparities. We present a flexible, GIS-based approach for examining spatial patterns within and among a range of social stressors, and their spatial relationships with air pollution, across New York City, towards understanding their combined effects on health. Methods: We identified a wide suite of administrative indicators of community-level social stressors (2008–2010), and applied simultaneous autoregressive models and factor analysis to characterize spatial correlations among social stressors, and between social stressors and air pollutants, using New York City Community Air Survey (NYCCAS) data (2008-2009). Finally, we provide an exploratory ecologic analysis evaluating possible modification of the relationship between nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and childhood asthma Emergency Department (ED) visit rates by social stressors, to demonstrate how the methods used to assess stressor exposure (and/or consequent psychosocial stress) may alter model results. Results: Administrative indicators of a range of social stressors (e.g., high crime rate, residential crowding rate) were not consistently correlated (rho = - 0.44 to 0.89), nor were they consistently correlated with indicators of socioeconomic position (rho = - 0.54 to 0.89). Factor analysis using 26 stressor indicators suggested geographically distinct patterns of social stressors, characterized by three factors: violent crime and physical disorder, crowding and poor access to resources, and noise disruption and property crimes. In an exploratory ecologic analysis, these factors were differentially associated with area-average NO2 and childhood asthma ED visits. For example, only the ‘violent crime and disorder’ factor was significantly associated with asthma ED visits, and only the ‘crowding and resource access’ factor modified the association between area-level NO2 and asthma ED visits. Conclusions: This spatial approach enabled quantification of complex spatial patterning and confounding between chemical and non-chemical exposures, and can inform study design for epidemiological studies of separate and combined effects of multiple urban exposures. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1476-069X-13-91) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Indoor air sampling for fine particulate matter and black carbon in industrial communities in Pittsburgh

AbstractImpacts of industrial emissions on outdoor air pollution in nearby communities are well-documented. Fewer studies, however, have explored impacts on indoor air quality in these communities. Because persons in northern climates spend a majority of their time indoors, understanding indoor exposures, and the role of outdoor air pollution in shaping such exposures, is a priority issue. Braddock and Clairton, Pennsylvania, industrial communities near Pittsburgh, are home to an active steel mill and coke works, respectively, and the population experiences elevated rates of childhood asthma. Twenty-one homes were selected for 1-week indoor sampling for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC) during summer 2011 and winter 2012. Multivariate linear regression models were used to examine contributions from both outdoor concentrations and indoor sources. In the models, an outdoor infiltration component explained 10 to 39% of variability in indoor air pollution for PM2.5, and 33 to 42% for BC. For both PM2.5 models and the summer BC model, smoking was a stronger predictor than outdoor pollution, as greater pollutant concentration increases were identified. For winter BC, the model was explained by outdoor pollution and an open windows modifier. In both seasons, indoor concentrations for both PM2.5 and BC were consistently higher than residence-specific outdoor concentration estimates. Mean indoor PM2.5 was higher, on average, during summer (25.8±22.7μg/m3) than winter (18.9±13.2μg/m3). Contrary to the study's hypothesis, outdoor concentrations accounted for only little to moderate variability (10 to 42%) in indoor concentrations; a much greater proportion of PM2.5 was explained by cigarette smoking. Outdoor infiltration was a stronger predictor for BC compared to PM2.5, especially in winter. Our results suggest that, even in industrial communities of high outdoor pollution concentrations, indoor activities – particularly cigarette smoking – may play a larger role in shaping indoor exposures

Chronic Conditions and Pediatric Healthcare Utilization during Warm Weather Days in New York City

Background: While literature on the overall health burden of high temperature exposures on children continues to grow, little is known about whether children with chronic diseases are particularly vulnerable to the adverse health impacts of extreme heat. Methods: We used New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) data on children aged 0-18 years admitted to emergency department and hospitals during the warm months (May-September) from 2005 to 2011. We identified children with specific chronic diseases or conditions that plausibly enhance susceptibility to heat (i.e., asthma, obesity, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease, sickle cell trait, and mental health disorders). We also identified children with a complex chronic condition (CCC) defined using the Feudtner classification scheme. We used a time-stratified, case-crossover design and conditional logistic regression models, adjusted for mean daily relative humidity, to derive estimates of excess risk of pediatric admissions associated with daily maximum temperature (Tmax). Results: There were 2,480,556 pediatric cases in New York City during the study period; 90.8% (n = 2,252,550) occurred in emergency departments; chronic conditions appeared in 0.1% (sickle cell trait) up to 8.3% (asthma). The average Tmax was 80.3F (range 50F-104F). While we found an increase in overall pediatric admissions associated with Tmax, we found decreased risks among children with some specific categories of chronic conditions, including asthma, obesity, and mental health disorders. For children with CCC, temperature was associated with increased admissions when considering only the summer months. Conclusions: We found that children with chronic conditions show a complex pattern of risk of healthcare utilization. With further replication, our findings can help inform preparedness of the health system for prevention measures

Temperature and mental health–related emergency department and hospital encounters among children, adolescents and young adults

Abstract Aims We examine the association between high ambient temperature and acute mental health-related healthcare encounters in New York City for children, adolescents and young adults. Methods This case-crossover study included emergency department (ED) visits and hospital encounters with a primary diagnosis of any mental health disorder during warm-season months (June–August) in New York City from 2005 to 2011 from patients of three age groups (6–11, 12–17 and 18–25 years). Using a distributed lag non-linear model over 0–5 lag days, by fitting a conditional logistic regression for each age group, we calculated the cumulative odds ratios of mental health encounters associated with an elevated temperature. Analyses were stratified by race/ethnicity, payment source and mental health categories to elucidate vulnerable subpopulations. Results In New York City, there were 82,982 mental health–related encounters for young people aged 6 to 25 years during our study period months. Elevated temperature days were associated with higher risk of mental health–related ED and hospital encounters for the 6- to 11-year-olds (odds ratio [OR]: 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.13–1.46), for the 12- to 17-year-olds (OR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.09–1.25) and for the 18- to 25-year-olds (OR: 1.09, 95% CI: 1.04–1.15). Children with reaction disorders, adolescents with anxiety and bipolar disorders, young adults with psychosis and reaction disorders and Black and non-Hispanic children and adolescents showed vulnerability to elevated temperature. Conclusions We found that elevated ambient temperatures were associated with acute mental health ED or hospital encounters across childhood, adolescence and young adulthood

A Framework for Examining Social Stress and Susceptibility to Air Pollution in Respiratory Health

Objective: There is growing interest in disentangling the health effects of spatially clustered social and physical environmental exposures and in exploring potential synergies among them, with particular attention directed to the combined effects of psychosocial stress and air pollution. Both exposures may be elevated in lower-income urban communities, and it has been hypothesized that stress, which can influence immune function and susceptibility, may potentiate the effects of air pollution in respiratory disease onset and exacerbation. In this paper, we attempt to synthesize the relevant research from social and environmental epidemiology, toxicology, immunology, and exposure assessment to provide a useful framework for environmental health researchers aiming to investigate the health effects of environmental pollution in combination with social or psychological factors. Data synthesis: We review the existing epidemiologic and toxicologic evidence on synergistic effects of stress and pollution, and then describe the physiologic effects of stress and key issues related to measuring and evaluating stress as it relates to physical environmental exposures and susceptibility. Finally, we identify some of the major methodologic challenges ahead as we work toward disentangling the health effects of clustered social and physical exposures and accurately describing the interplay among these exposures. Conclusions: There is still tremendous work to be done toward understanding the combined and potentially synergistic health effects of stress and pollution. As this research proceeds, we recommend careful attention to the relative temporalities of stress and pollution exposures, to nonlinearities in their independent and combined effects, to physiologic pathways not elucidated by epidemiologic methods, and to the relative spatial distributions of social and physical exposures at multiple geographic scales

Evaluating the Impact of the Clean Heat Program on Air Pollution Levels in New York City

Residual heating oil is a class of heavy oil that remains after the lighter components are distilled away from crude oil in the refining process (EIA 2020) and has been linked to adverse health outcomes (Bell et al. 2009). In New York City (NYC), residual heating oil has been identified as a major source of multiple air pollutants, including fine particulate matter [PM less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers ≤ 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM₂.₅)] (Clougherty et al. 2010; Kheirbek et al. 2014), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) (U.S. EPA 1998), and black carbon (Cornell et al. 2012). Prior to policy implementation, three types of heating oil were used in NYC: heating oil #4, #6, and ultra-low sulfur oil #2. Both #6 and #4 are referred to as residual heating oils, and oil #2, which is the lightest of the three, has been considered a cleaner alternative (Kheirbek et al. 2014). In 2012, NYC established the Clean Heat Program (CHP) to eliminate the use of residual heating oil and move toward cleaner energy forms (Hernández 2016). Here, we have evaluated the CHP outcomes, quantified the CHP-attributable air pollution reductions between 2012 and 2016, and assessed if and how these reductions vary by neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES). We aim to contribute to the knowledge of CHP effects since its implementation, assess relevant equity issues, and inform future policy improvements

Synergistic Effects of Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Exposure to Violence on Urban Asthma Etiology

Background: Disproportionate life stress and consequent physiologic alteration (i.e., immune dysregulation) has been proposed as a major pathway linking socioeconomic position, environmental exposures, and health disparities. Asthma, for example, disproportionately affects lower-income urban communities, where air pollution and social stressors may be elevated. Objectives: We aimed to examine the role of exposure to violence (ETV), as a chronic stressor, in altering susceptibility to traffic-related air pollution in asthma etiology. Methods: We developed geographic information systems (GIS)–based models to retrospectively estimate residential exposures to traffic-related pollution for 413 children in a community-based pregnancy cohort, recruited in East Boston, Massachusetts, between 1987 and 1993, using monthly nitrogen dioxide measurements for 13 sites over 18 years. We merged pollution estimates with questionnaire data on lifetime ETV and examined the effects of both on childhood asthma etiology. Results: Correcting for potential confounders, we found an elevated risk of asthma with a 1-SD (4.3 ppb) increase in NO2 exposure solely among children with above-median ETV [odds ratio (OR) = 1.63; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.14–2.33)]. Among children always living in the same community, with lesser exposure measurement error, this association was magnified (OR = 2.40; 95% CI, 1.48–3.88). Of multiple exposure periods, year-of-diagnosis NO$_2$ was most predictive of asthma outcomes. Conclusions: We found an association between traffic-related air pollution and asthma solely among urban children exposed to violence. Future studies should consider socially patterned susceptibility, common spatial distributions of social and physical environmental factors, and potential synergies among these. Prospective assessment of physical and social exposures may help determine causal pathways and critical exposure periods