PM Research Centers Report Progress
In 1988, Congress directed the U.S. EPA to substantially increase its level of funding on PM health effects research.
It also mandated that a National Research Council (NRC) committee be established to provide scientific oversight for PM research. In its first report, the NRC Committee on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter recommended the establishment of interdisciplinary research centers to be funded on a multi-year basis to foster comprehensive and integrated research on particle health effects. In a competitive process, EPA awarded grants to five centers: A California consortium headquartered at the University of California Los Angeles, Harvard University, New York University, the University of Rochester, and the University of Washington.
This review article reports on the substantial accomplishments of the PM centers in their first two and a half years of operation, and lays out short- and longer-term research goals. Six topics are discussed: biological mechanisms, acute effects, chronic effects, dosimetry, and exposure assessment.
Lippmann, M., Frampton, M., Schwartz, J., Dockery, D., Schlesinger R., Koutrakis, P., Froines, J., Nel, A., Finkelstein, J., Godleski, J., Kaufman, J., Koenig, J., Larson, T., Luchtel, D., Liu, L-J., S., Oberdörster, G., Peters, A., Sarnat, J., Sioutas S., Suh, H., Sullivan J., Utell, M., Wichmann, E., and Zelikoff, J. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Particulate Matter Health Effects Research Centers Program: A Midcourse Report of Status, Progress and Plans. Environmental Health Perspectives. Vol. 111, No. 8, pp. 1074-1092, June 2003
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [http://ehis.niehs.nih.gov/] makes the full article available for free online.
