A community participatory study of cardiovascular health and exposure to near-highway air pollution: study design and methods

Fuller, Christina H.; Patton, Allison P.; Lane, Kevin; Laws, M. Barton; Marden, Aaron; Carrasco, Edna; Spengler, John D.; Mwamburi, Mkaya; Zamore, Wig; Durant, John L.; Brugge, Doug

doi:10.1515/reveh-2012-0029

Cited by 32 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…The intervention was a collaboration between the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health study (CAFEH; [18]) and the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (BPRHS; [19]). In addition to the trial results, we conducted a meta-analysis with a second in-home HEPA intervention trial conducted in nearby Somerville, MA as part of CAFEH [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons from in-home air filtration intervention trials to reduce urban ultrafine particle number concentrations

Brugge

Simon

Hudda

et al. 2017

Building and Environment

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Background Exposure to airborne ultrafine particle (UFP; <100 nm in aerodynamic diameter) is an emerging public health problem. Nevertheless, the benefit of using high efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filtration to reduce UFP concentrations in homes is not yet clear. Methods We conducted a randomized crossover study of HEPA filtration without a washout period in 23 homes of low-income Puerto Ricans in Boston and Chelsea, MA (USA). Most participants were female, older adults who were overweight or obese. Particle number concentrations (PNC, a proxy for UFP) were measured indoors and outdoors at each home continuously for six weeks. Homes received both HEPA filtration and sham filtration for three weeks each in random order. Results Median PNC under HEPA filtration was 50–85% lower compared to sham filtration in most homes, but we found no benefit in terms of reduced inflammation; associations between hsCRP, IL-6, or TNFRII in blood samples and indoor PNC were inverse and not statistically significant. Conclusions Limitations to our study design likely contributed to our findings. Limitations included carry-over effects, a population that may have been relatively unresponsive to UFP, reduction in PNC even during sham filtration that limited differences between HEPA and sham filtration, window opening by participants, and lack of fine-grained (room-specific) participant time-activity information. Our approach was similar to other recent HEPA intervention studies of particulate matter exposure and cardiovascular risk, suggesting that there is a need for better study designs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons from in-home air filtration intervention trials to reduce urban ultrafine particle number concentrations

Brugge

Simon

Hudda

et al. 2017

Building and Environment

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“…In particular, we expected that gradients would be similar in neighborhoods with single highways compared to neighborhoods with multiple major roadways and tall buildings, and that TRAP concentrations and the composition of TRAP mixtures would change in response to temporally-variable forcings. This work was performed as part of the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health study (CAFEH), a community-based participatory research (CBPR) study of TRAP exposure and cardiovascular health risk (Fuller et al, 2013). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal differences in traffic-related air pollution in three urban neighborhoods near an interstate highway

Patton

Perkins

Zamore

et al. 2014

Atmospheric Environment

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Relatively few studies have characterized differences in intra- and inter-neighborhood traffic-related air pollutant (TRAP) concentrations and distance-decay gradients in along an urban highway for the purposes of exposure assessment. The goal of this work was to determine the extent to which intra- and inter-neighborhood differences in TRAP concentrations can be explained by traffic and meteorology in three pairs of neighborhoods along Interstate 93 (I-93) in the metropolitan Boston area (USA). We measured distance-decay gradients of seven TRAPs (PNC, pPAH, NO, NOX, BC, CO, PM2.5) in near-highway (<400 m) and background areas (>1 km) in Somerville, Dorchester/South Boston, Chinatown and Malden to determine whether (1) spatial patterns in concentrations and inter-pollutant correlations differ between neighborhoods, and (2) variation within and between neighborhoods can be explained by traffic and meteorology. The neighborhoods ranged in area from 0.5 to 2.3 km2. Mobile monitoring was performed over the course of one year in each pair of neighborhoods (one pair of neighborhoods per year in three successive years; 35-47 days of monitoring in each neighborhood). Pollutant levels generally increased with highway proximity, consistent with I-93 being a major source of TRAP; however, the slope and extent of the distance-decay gradients varied by neighborhood as well as by pollutant, season and time of day. Correlations among pollutants differed between neighborhoods (e.g., ρ = 0.35-0.80 between PNC and NOX and ρ = 0.11-0.60 between PNC and BC) and were generally lower in Dorchester/South Boston than in the other neighborhoods. We found that the generalizability of near-road gradients and near-highway/urban background contrasts was limited for near-highway neighborhoods in a metropolitan area with substantial local street traffic. Our findings illustrate the importance of measuring gradients of multiple pollutants under different ambient conditions in individual near-highway neighborhoods for health studies involving inter-neighborhood comparisons.

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“…A detailed description of the study is provided elsewhere [32]. Somerville is a city located to the northwest of Boston whose southeast portion is split by I-93, which carries 150,000 vehicles per day (vpd) and another major roadway, Route-38 (20,000 vpd) [33].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of biomarkers of inflammation and coagulation to short-term changes in central site, local, and predicted particle number concentrations

Fuller¹,

Williams²,

Mittleman³

et al. 2015

Annals of Epidemiology

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Purpose-Previous studies have reported acute (hours-28 days) associations between ambient ultrafine particles (UFP; diameter <0.1) and biomarkers of cardiovascular health using central site data. We evaluated particle number concentration (a proxy measure for UFP) measured at a central site, a local near-highway site and predicted residential concentrations with response of biomarkers of inflammation and coagulation in a near-highway population.Methods-Participants provided two blood samples for analysis of interleukin-6 (IL-6), highsensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α receptor II, and fibrinogen. Mixed effect models were used to evaluate the association between PNC levels on the same day, prior 2 days, and moving averages of 3 to 28 days.Results-Estimated effects on biomarkers of a 5000 unit increase in central site PNC generally increased with longer averaging times for IL-6, hs-CRP, and fibrinogen. Effect estimates were highest for a 28-day moving average, with 91% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9, 230) higher IL-6 levels, 74% (95% CI: −7, 220) higher hs-CRP levels, and 59% (95% CI: −13, 130) higher fibrinogen levels. We observed no clear trend between near-highway or predicted residential PNC and any of the biomarkers. HHS Public Access Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript Author ManuscriptConclusions-Only central site PNC increased blood markers of inflammation while nearhighway and predicted residential values did not. We cannot fully explain this result, although differing PNC composition is a possibility. Future studies would assist in understanding these findings.

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A community participatory study of cardiovascular health and exposure to near-highway air pollution: study design and methods

Cited by 32 publications

References 70 publications

Lessons from in-home air filtration intervention trials to reduce urban ultrafine particle number concentrations

Lessons from in-home air filtration intervention trials to reduce urban ultrafine particle number concentrations

Spatial and temporal differences in traffic-related air pollution in three urban neighborhoods near an interstate highway

Response of biomarkers of inflammation and coagulation to short-term changes in central site, local, and predicted particle number concentrations

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