PM-10 Research Needs

Abstract

PM-10 RESEARCH NEEDS R. F. Phalen Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory, Department of Community and Environmental Medicine, College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA R. 0. McClellan Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA Over 200 scientists participated in the 1994 Colloaiiium on Particulate Air Pollution and Huma'n Mortality and Morbidity. The specialties of these participants included epidemiology, biostatistics, pulmonary medicine, occu- pational medicine, toxicology, physiology, cell biology, risk assessment, receptor modeling, source modeling, atmospheric chemistry, aerosol science, chemical engineering, and public health. The participants offered over 100 written suggestions for additional research related to each of the following platform sessions: epidemiological findings, epidemiologic methods, mech- anisms of toxicity, and sources, levels, and characterization of PM-10. Many of the suggestions were similar enough to be combined, and all of them have been edited or paraphrased for the sake of consistency and clarity. These suggestions for research were not officially discussed at the Colloqu- ium due to time constraints. In addition, they do not carry the imprimatur of any funding agency or regulatory agency. Rather, they are a encapsula- tion of the perceived needs for research as expressed by a large and diverse group of scientists who are actively involved with many aspects of the prob- lem of understanding and dealing with the impact of particulate air pollu- tion on the health of human populations. The suggestions are organized in this article in accordance with the Colloquium sessions. The most frequently mentioned suggestions are listed first, for emphasis. EPIDEMIOLOGIC FINDINGS (SESSION I) The session included presentations that both linked and failed to link human mortality and morbidity to ambient particulate air pollution. The identified research needs associated with this session were both numerous and varied. Supported by the California Air Resourc:es Board (contract 92-341 ), the National Institutes of Health (grant R01 HL 39682-05), and the Irvine Center for Occupational and Environmental Health (for- merly lrvine Occupational Health Center) of the University of California, Irvine. Richard Mannix and Marie Tonini assisted with this article. Inhalation Toxicology, 7:773-779, 1995 Copyright 0 1995 Taylor & Francis 0895-8378195 $1 0.00 + .oo