Translator Exposure APIs: Open Access to Data on Airborne Pollutant Exposures, Roadway Exposures, and Socio-Environmental Exposures and Use Case Application

Abstract

Environmental exposures have profound effects on health and disease. While public repositories exist for a variety of exposures data, these are generally difficult to access, navigate, and interpret. We describe the research, development, and application of three open application programming interfaces (APIs) that support access to usable, nationwide, exposures data from three public repositories: airborne pollutant estimates from the US Environmental Protection Agency; roadway data from the US Department of Transportation; and socio-environmental exposures from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Three open APIs were successfully developed, deployed, and tested using random latitude/longitude values and time periods as input parameters. After confirming the accuracy of the data, we used the APIs to extract exposures data on 2550 participants from a cohort within the Environmental Polymorphisms Registry (EPR) at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and we successfully linked the exposure estimates with participant-level data derived from the EPR. We then conducted an exploratory, proof-of-concept analysis of the integrated data for a subset of participants with self-reported asthma and largely replicated our prior findings on the impact of select exposures and demographic factors on asthma exacerbations. Together, the three open exposures APIs provide a valuable resource, with application across environmental and public health fields.

Development and Application of an Open Tool for Sharing and Analyzing Integrated Clinical and Environmental Exposures Data: Asthma Use Case

“…The exposures data were derived from public sources and included airborne pollutant exposures data from the United States (US) Environmental Protection Agency Fused Air Quality Surface Using Downscaling repository; major roadway or highway exposures data (a proxy for airborne pollutant exposures) from the US Department of Transportation; and socioeconomic exposures data from the US Census Bureau American Community Survey. (Additional information on the sources of environmental exposures data can be found in [ 11 ].) After the data were integrated, the resultant ICEES integrated feature tables were stripped of identifiers per the Safe Harbor method outlined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) before being exposed with an open application programming interface (OpenAPI).…”

Leveraging Open Electronic Health Record Data and Environmental Exposures Data to Derive Insights Into Rare Pulmonary Disease

“…Distance estimates were based on patient primary residential address, as listed in the EHR. (Additional information on the sources of environmental exposures data can be found in Fecho et al, 2019 ; Valencia et al, 2020 ).…”

Unveiling environmental justice through open government data: Work in progress for most US states

“…Is the exposure disproportionately high given my community's socioeconomic characteristics?” A community is an administrative zone, such as a ward, a neighborhood, a city, or a user‐defined area. Those questions are central to the inquiry of EJ (Fecho et al, 2019; Lai & Kontokosta, 2019; Valencia et al, 2020) and are used by scholars and practitioners to assess the degree of EJ concerns within a given community. However, an average user might not be able to answer them without appropriate tools (e.g., map viewers).…”

“…Various U.S. government agencies have been collecting and managing socioeconomic, environmental, and health data (EJ data) and are increasingly making them available through OGD initiatives (Lee, 2020; Valencia et al, 2020). However, EJ researchers have noted that most OGD are fragmented, incomplete, and difficult to access (Fecho et al, 2019; Lai & Kontokosta, 2019; Mennis, 2002; Valencia et al, 2020). As an alternative, researchers and community groups have led crowdsourcing initiatives asking the public to collect relevant data (Haklay & Francis, 2018).…”

“…So far, only a few studies have assessed EJ OGD initiatives in the U.S. (Fecho et al, 2019; Lai & Kontokosta, 2019; Valencia et al, 2020). However, none of them moves beyond the assessment of OGD completeness to incorporate accessibility and usability of data for relevant communities.…”