Air Quality

Consequences of Adverse Air Quality

	Professor D'Arcy Holman University of Western Australia

Australians consistently rank air pollution as a major environmental concern. This program has been developed to generate a decrease in the rates of asthma and other airways disease which contribute significantly to Australia’s illness and mortality burden. The program objectives provide a mutually reinforcing perspective of airway disease aetiology that ranges from small scale (ie household level) to large-scale (regional and national level). To address these knowledge gaps this program will address three primary themes: Indoor air quality, Urban emissions, and Regional drivers of airway disease. These themes encompass the continuum of risk factors that must be conceptually integrated to identify causative pathways and hence appropriate interventions for asthma and other forms of airway disease. Inclusion of multiple and often interacting drivers of airway disease provide a necessary platform upon which environmental, health and infrastructure policy recommendations may be based.

Studies addressing indoor air quality are focusing on exposures in households, schools and workplaces, including the role of home unflued gas appliances and wood burning stoves. The relationships between respiratory disease and time-variable levels of particulates, oxides of nitrogen and volatile compounds are being quantified. A composite exposure metric are being developed for health risks posed by indoor organic allergens, products of combustion, volatiles, tobacco smoke, and relevant pathogens. Exposure-response relationships are being developed for community health outcomes and urban emissions, including ozone, NO2, and particulates, using outdoor ambient monitoring networks and atmospheric research models for New South Wales and Western Australia which should be applicable to other Australian cities. The factors underlying the emerging evidence of adverse respiratory effects arising from vehicle emissions (eg through motorway tunnel ventilation stacks and expressways) are being evaluated. A validated methodology for assessing the health impacts of proposed infrastructure projects will be developed. Studies will determine whether regional drivers of airway disease – such as aeroallergens from agricultural croplands and native scrublands; and geogenic dusts from land degradation - are associated with variation in the adverse respiratory health outcomes. The respiratory risk of bush burn-off and bushfires to emergency personnel and neighbouring communities will also be assessed.

Lane Cove Tunnel

	Associate Professor Guy Marks Woolcock Institute

The aim of this study is to better understand the effect of changes in traffic-related air pollution on health. Specifically, the study is looking at whether changes in traffic patterns after the opening of the Lane Cove Tunnel have any effect on the respiratory health of local residents.

The research involves participants living in four discrete areas of interest around tfhe Lane Cove area. These areas were chosen as they were predicted to experience varying changes in air quality due to the tunnel opening and the associated road changes in the local area. Measurements have been taken both before the tunnel opened in 2006, and again after opening, in 2007. The investigation has been extended to include a third and final round of data collection (in 2008) due to the delay in road changes to Epping Road which occurred up to March 2008.

The research consists of four main components:

1. A Questionnaire Survey focussing mainly on respiratory health and environmental factors and conducted with almost 3000 residents between 2 and 75 years residing in 1800 households in the four areas. The research company, McNair Ingenuity Research, has again been commissioned by the Woolcock Institute to interview all participants previously recruited to the study in the four areas of interest.
   
   
2. A Diary Study conducted with a sub-sample of 360 children and adults. The Diary Study involves home visits by specialist researchers, who do tests on lung function and airway inflammation (breathing tests). In addition, each participant is asked to complete a daily symptom and peak flow diary for nine weeks.
   
   
3. Development of a number of methods to predict individual exposure to traffic related air pollution using nitrogen dioxide (NO2) as a marker. Ambient passive NO2 monitoring has been conducted at a number of locations in the area to determine how NO2 varies over small distances. In addition, about 25 people are taking part in personal sampling of NO2 where they wear personal NO2 passive samplers on a number of occasions. Modelling of air quality levels (NO2, particulate matter (PM 10, PM 2.5)) by CSIRO is also taking place to estimate individual exposures. The measurements from the passive NO2 samplers, along with the modelled data and air quality measurements from four fixed site monitors in the area, will be analysed to determine their agreement with each other, and to determine how we should assign exposure to air pollution for the study participants.
   
   
4. Investigating short-term effects of exposure to emissions from the tunnel ventilation stacks. This involves a small number of volunteer subjects attending one of a number of locations around the western ventilation stack and another (control) location on six occasions during the testing period. During each testing occasion, subjects undergo gentle exercise (walking) for a period of two hours, and undergo lung function testing as well as record irritant symptoms.
   

To date, all components of the research have taken place in 2006 and 2007. We are currently contacting participants for the Questionnaire Survey and Diary Study as part of the third and final round of data collection.