CAEE	The Center For Asthma & Environmental Exposure "New Projects"
Project 1	Air Toxics Exposure from Vehicular Emissions at a U.S. Border Crossing Investigators: JD Spengler and JS Lwebuga-Mukasa Institutions: Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York Funded by: Health Effects Institute, supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
	The Peace Bridge Port of Entry into the United States from Canada is the setting for a study assessing exposures to air toxics arising from vehicular emissions. Vehicular emissions are of particular concern at border crossings because private and commercial vehicles may idle for considerable time while awaiting border inspection. At the Peace Bridge Plaza, for example, average inbound waiting time for commercial vehicles is 23 minutes, but can be as long as 83 minutes (US DOT Freight News, FHWA-OP-02-072, June 2002). And, depending on increases in the alert status of the Homeland Security Advisory System, these waiting times may be expected to increase as inspections are intensified. Air toxics exposures may therefore be under-appreciated for border crossing personnel, vehicle occupants, and the residents of adjacent low-income, predominately Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods of west Buffalo. The neighborhood impacts are of particular concern because of documented elevations in asthma and chronic respiratory disease prevalence rates, which have not been fully explained by personal, household, and socioeconomic factors. The significance of this study stems from a growing body of scientific evidence suggesting that mobile sources, particularly diesel trucks, play a role in the exacerbation of asthma and impairment of lung function. There are now several studies from the U.S., Canada, Taiwan and Europe suggesting associations between asthma, respiratory symptoms (bronchitis, COPD, pneumonia), hospital and ER visits and vehicle traffic. While the scientific evidence associating vehicle emissions and asthma and other respiratory conditions is strongly suggestive several questions remain. Most studies used indicators of exposures such as proximity to roads and traffic counts. Through a unique combination of fixed and mobile monitoring, our project will use GPS and GIS to ascertain the spatial and temporal distributions of exposure to air toxics in the vicinity of the Peace Bridge Plaza, where vehicles queue for inspection before crossing the border, and which will be considered the centroid of the pollutant hot spot created by vehicular emissions. A selected set of parameters to be measured in west Buffalo include the following: PM2.5, ultrafines, black carbon, elements (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, nickel), nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone,VOC’s( benzene, 1,3-butadiene, MTBE, toluene, xylene, actetaldehyde, formaldehyde, acrolein), and semi-VOCs (PAH’s and nitro-PAH’s). Assessment of the spatial distribution is aimed at characterizing patterns of air pollutant concentrations at the border crossing and its approaching roadways, as well as upwind and downwind of these areas. We will extend measurements into the adjacent west Buffalo neighborhoods downwind of the Peace Plaza and most affected by its mobile source emissions. Beyond local health concerns, the findings and methods implemented in the proposed study should be relevant to other similar mobile-source hot spots, such as those along the U.S. borders with Mexico, and other locations of intense vehicle traffic, such as ports.	Home