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Post-Doctoral Fellowships
Traffic Related Air Pollution and Acute Health Response –
Evidence from Panel-Based Studies
Considerable evidence from observational and controlled studies link traffic-related pollution to
adverse health effects. The identification of specific emission sources, components and mixtures of
traffic pollution associated with acute and chronic response remains a key knowledge gap within
air pollution health effects research.
The Atlanta Commuters Exposure studies (ACE-1 and ACE-2)
To investigate in-vehicle exposures among daily car commuters, we conducted ACE-1 and ACE-2;
two panel-based exposure and health assessment studies among adults with and without asthma.
In ACE-2, a randomized, crossover study, 60 adults participated in a scripted two hour highway
commute in addition to either a surface street commute or an indoor clinic exposure scenario. Each
scenario included an extensive suite of pre- and post-exposure pollutant and health measurements.
ACE-2 is part of a larger USEPA-supported initiative, the Southeastern Center for Air Pollution
and Epidemiology, designed to examine health effects associated with air pollution mixtures.
Specifically, ACE-2 aims include examination of:
acute, sub-clinical oxidative stress-mediated responses due to real-world exposures to traffic-
related PM, using individual-specific metrics of personal exposure;
the temporality of these exposure-response functions;
whether daily commuters comprise a potentially vulnerable sub-population; and
whether asthma status and control modifies the risk of traffic PM.
Developing Multi-pollutant Exposure Indicators of Traffic Pollution: The Dorm Room
Inhalation to Vehicle Emissions (DRIVE) Study
DRIVE is a field-based measurement and exposure study, which will evaluate a suite of primary
traffic pollution indicators and novel biomarkers of internal pollutant exposures using environmental
metabolomics. The DRIVE study focuses on a unique emission-exposure setting in Atlanta. The
Georgia Institute of Technology students live in residential dorms immediately adjacent to the
busiest and most congested highway artery in the city. Sixty students living in these dorms will be
recruited for the collection of time-activity information and measurement of metabolic biomarkers
of exposure. In this study we will conduct highly chemically-speciated measurements of traffic
pollutants in a range of near road microenvironments and assess the suitability of using near road
indicators as primary traffic exposure surrogates in panel-based and small cohort epidemiological
studies. Metabolomics results may lead to the development of new biologically-based primary
traffic pollution indicators.
Research publications
(1)
Sarnat, J.A., Golan, R., Greenwald, R., Raysoni, A.U., Kewada, P., Winquist, A., Sarnat, S.E., Dana Flanders, W.,
Mirabelli, M.C., Zora, J.E., Bergin, M.H., & Yip, F. (2014). Exposure to traffic pollution, acute inflammation and
autonomic response in a panel of car commuters.
Environmental Research, 3
, 133C, 66-76.
Fellow
Rachel Golan
Emory University, USA
Supervisor
Jeremy Sarnat
2013-2015