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Measuring Effectiveness of Pollution Reduction Efforts
New Haven, Conn., is one of many cities in the United States that has an air pollution problem. To improve air quality and public health, the community is engaged in a comprehensive Clean Air Initiative. This multi-faceted project includes a number of voluntary steps to decrease air pollution, such as retrofitting the city's diesel school buses to reduce emissions, and cutting emission levels from diesel-powered construction and industrial vehicles.
To understand if these interventions are indeed improving public health, community officials and scientists in EPA's human health research program are developing the methods, models, and data to measure the impact of pollution reduction activities.
EPA scientists and City of New Haven officials are working together on a pilot project to determine what public health data are available, such as hospital discharge rates and school absenteeism, that could be used to develop measurement tools. They also are collecting information on available air quality and exposure data. The public health data will be combined with emissions data and air quality model predictions to provide guidance on the development of models for measuring the effectiveness of programs to reduce pollution.
"We are hopeful that the New Haven study will provide our region as well as our Agency with a method to link improvements in air pollution with health improvements," said MaryBeth Smuts, Ph.D., regional air toxicologist in EPA's regional office in New England. "It's our ultimate goal to provide evidence that local, state and federal actions are improving air pollution and public health."
The project with New Haven is part of EPA's research to be more accountable to the public by demonstrating true environmental progress in the nation's cities. EPA scientists will use the New Haven project to develop scientific approaches and tools that will have broad application for measuring environmental progress nationwide.