EPA Grants $1 Million to University of Pittsburgh for asthma study (PA)
PHILADELPHIA (June 21, 2011)
-- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has
awarded more than $1 million to the University of Pittsburgh to
conduct a study designed to increase the quality of life for
children who live in underserved communities and suffer from
asthma.
Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and
other institutions will coordinate efforts to determine and
understand the effects of air pollution on childhood asthma when
combined with social stressors such as poverty and
violence.
“This research highlights the value and
need for conducting cumulative risk assessments that are responsive
to community concerns and environmental justice,” said Bill
Sanders, Director of EPA’s National Center for Environmental
Research. “Interdisciplinary studies like these aid in
developing practical health and safety
measures.”
The study will measure the levels of pollutants
from vehicle exhaust and other sources, as well as incidences of
crime, poor nutrition and other social stressors, in New York City
neighborhoods. Adding this information to data on the rate and
severity of childhood asthma in these neighborhoods, researchers
will examine how and why these social stressors impact childhood
asthma and develop ways to educate communities on this issue and
ways to improve children’s overall health.
The study is part of an $8 million EPA grant
awarded earlier this year through the Agency’s Science to
Achieve Results (STAR) research grant program supporting a series
of studies on cumulative human health risk
assessments.
EPA’s STAR grant program supports human
health, ecology, economics and engineering sciences through grants,
centers and fellowships. The program stimulates cutting-edge
research on life stage susceptibility (how age reflects a
person’s risk to pollutants) and investigates methods for
assessing exposure and environmental health disparities among
different socio-economic groups. To date, research results from the
STAR program have aided in the development of local and state
policy, and have guided clinicians, community advocates and parents
in creating safer, healthier environments.
For more information on STAR grant awards,
visit https://www.epa.gov/research-grants.
For more information on asthma visit http://www.epa.gov/asthma/awm/index.html.