Digital Commons Network^™

The World Trade Center Disaster And The Health Of Workers: Five-Year Assessment Of A Unique Medical Screening Program, Robin Herbert, Jacqueline Moline, Gwen Skloot, Kristina Metzger, Sherry Baron, Benjamin Luft, Steven Markowitz, Iris Udasin, Denise Harrison, Diane Stein, Andrew Todd, Paul Enright, Jeanne Mager Stellman, Philip J. Landrigan, Stephen M. Levin

Publications and Research

Background Approximately 40,000 rescue and recovery workers were exposed to caustic dust and toxic pollutants following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC). These workers included traditional first responders, such as firefighters and police, and a diverse population of construction, utility, and public sector workers. Methods To characterize WTC-related health effects, the WTC Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program was established. This multicenter clinical program provides free standardized examinations to responders. Examinations include medical, mental health, and exposure assessment questionnaires; physical examinations; spirometry; and chest X rays. Results Of 9,442 responders examined between July 2002 and …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Chronic Effects Of Fine Particulate Matter, Sorina E. Eftim, Holly Janes, Aidan Mcdermott, Jonathan M. Samet, Francesca Dominici

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

The American Cancer Society study (ACS) and the Harvard Six Cities study (SCS) are the two landmark cohort studies for estimating the chronic effects of fine particulate matter PM2.5 on mortality. To date, no comparative analysis of these studies has been carried out using a different study design, study period, data, and modeling approach. In this paper, we estimate the chronic effects of PM on mortality for the period 2000-2002 by using mortality data from Medicare and \PM levels from the National Air Pollution Monitoring Network for the same counties included in the SCS and the ACS. We use a …

The Effects Of Air Pollution On Infant Health: An Empirical Evaluation Of Georgia, Mamadou Laity Sow

Economics Dissertations

Adverse birth outcomes have many causes but there is increasing awareness that air pollution is one of them. This study examines the effects of air pollution on infant health and mortality using data from the State of Georgia. The estimation methods control for potential endogenous variables such as the length of gestation and the demand for prenatal care. Moreover dummy-fixed effects are used to control for unobserved neighborhood characteristics using the place of residence of the mother. In addition, the model uses a comprehensive framework, which considers birth weight, length of gestation, and mortality, thus allowing pre and postnatal assessment …

Spatial Estimations Of Air Pollution In Urban Areas By Lidar Measurements, L. Matejicek

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Spatial analysis and visualization of data focused on air pollution in urban areas can be more efficiently explored by geographic information systems (GISs). Data originating from direct monitoring, mathematical modelling and physical simulation in wind tunnels are represented by a wide range of data formats that, together with spatial objects on the surface of studied areas, form heterogenic structures. Thus, to solve spatio-temporal analysis and numeric models, a complex computer system is needed to manage the data and a number of user oriented procedures. In the case of this contribution, a GIS project is developed to examine the GIS abilities …

Spatial Estimations Of Air Pollution In Street Canyons By Lidar Measurements, L. Matejicek, Jana Konradova

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Air pollution of urban areas can be explored by direct monitoring, mathematical modeling and physical simulation in the wind tunnels. Complex analysis requires using of all mentioned approaches together. To integrate the data inputs and outputs, which include spatio-temporal interactions, the Geographic Information System (GIS) is used for database management and spatial analysis. The geodatabase is primarily developed to support spatial interpolations of LIDAR measurements in the street canyons. The LIDAR measurements provide the information about the distribution of pollutants in the points along the beam trajectories. As the examples, the sets of NO2 spatial measurements are performed in the …

Supporting Environmental And Energy Decisions Through An Open Software Structure, Giorgio Guariso, Matteo Baracani

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Public participation to environmental planning and management decisions, as suggested by localAgenda 21 processes, can be supported by software tools developed with a cyclic interaction with all thestakeholders and simple enough to be quickly operated by a large set of heterogeneous users. This also helpspreventing their rapid aging and their excessive dependence on changing technologies. We experimented thedevelopment of such software tools using an Office type environment to store data, analyse, andgeographically represent the effects of alternative decisions and html files to help utilizing the software anddistributing the information over the Internet. Two different applications are reported in the paper. …

Current Trends In Environmental Modelling With Uncertainty., Jiří Hřebíček, Jan Pesl

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The important characteristic feature of environmental modelling is the complexity and uncertainty of its mathematical representation (uncertainty of formula). Imprecision of its input data is another characteristic feature, where it is not possible to omit influences of primary monitoring (e.g. gaps of data, errors of measuring facilities, human factor, etc). Many parameters in algorithms and their mathematical formulations are substituted by empirical constants in praxis, although it is well known that their values are very volatile and input data are not validated. Nowadays, information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities are growing rapidly and applied mathematical software (e.g. computer algebra systems, …

Spatial Estimations Of Air Pollution In Urban Areas By Lidar Measurements, L. Matejicek

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Spatial analysis and visualization of data focused on air pollution in urban areas can be more efficiently explored by geographic information systems (GISs). Data originating from direct monitoring, mathematical modelling and physical simulation in wind tunnels are represented by a wide range of data formats that, together with spatial objects on the surface of studied areas, form heterogenic structures. Thus, to solve spatio-temporal analysis and numeric models, a complex computer system is needed to manage the data and a number of user oriented procedures. In the case of this contribution, a GIS project is developed to examine the GIS abilities …

Spatial Estimations Of Air Pollution In Street Canyons By Lidar Measurements, L. Matejicek, Jana Konradova

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Air pollution of urban areas can be explored by direct monitoring, mathematical modeling and physical simulation in the wind tunnels. Complex analysis requires using of all mentioned approaches together. To integrate the data inputs and outputs, which include spatio-temporal interactions, the Geographic Information System (GIS) is used for database management and spatial analysis. The geodatabase is primarily developed to support spatial interpolations of LIDAR measurements in the street canyons. The LIDAR measurements provide the information about the distribution of pollutants in the points along the beam trajectories. As the examples, the sets of NO2 spatial measurements are performed in the …

Supporting Environmental And Energy Decisions Through An Open Software Structure, Giorgio Guariso, Matteo Baracani

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Public participation to environmental planning and management decisions, as suggested by localAgenda 21 processes, can be supported by software tools developed with a cyclic interaction with all thestakeholders and simple enough to be quickly operated by a large set of heterogeneous users. This also helpspreventing their rapid aging and their excessive dependence on changing technologies. We experimented thedevelopment of such software tools using an Office type environment to store data, analyse, andgeographically represent the effects of alternative decisions and html files to help utilizing the software anddistributing the information over the Internet. Two different applications are reported in the paper. …

Current Trends In Environmental Modelling With Uncertainty., Jiří Hřebíček, Jan Pesl

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The important characteristic feature of environmental modelling is the complexity and uncertainty of its mathematical representation (uncertainty of formula). Imprecision of its input data is another characteristic feature, where it is not possible to omit influences of primary monitoring (e.g. gaps of data, errors of measuring facilities, human factor, etc). Many parameters in algorithms and their mathematical formulations are substituted by empirical constants in praxis, although it is well known that their values are very volatile and input data are not validated. Nowadays, information and communication technology (ICT) capabilities are growing rapidly and applied mathematical software (e.g. computer algebra systems, …

Global Warming And Transportation System Planning, Bob Yuhnke

Climate Change and the Future of the American West: Exploring the Legal and Policy Dimensions (Summer Conference, June 7-9)

Presenter: Bob Yuhnke, Robert E. Yuhnke & Associates, Boulder, CO.

4 pages.

Measurement And Modeling Of Oxides Of Nitrogen From Vehicular Contributors, Kerstin Lesley Kenty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research was the examination of the emission and transformation of nitrogen oxides emitted from vehicles. Measured data for this experiment were collected from May 1 thru May 31, 2002, and were compared to values modeled with CALINE4. CALINE4 is a photochemical and dispersive model used to predict concentrations of NOX (NO+NO2) from line sources. The measurement campaign was coincident with the Bay Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (BRACE). An ambient air quality monitoring site was constructed adjacent to Gandy Boulevard, in Tampa, FL. When comparisons of measured and modeled NO and NO2 values were made it was …

Bayesian And Positive Matrix Factorization Approaches To Pollution Source Apportionment, Jeff William Lingwall

Theses and Dissertations

The use of Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) in pollution source apportionment (PSA) is examined and illustrated. A study of its settings is conducted in order to optimize them in the context of PSA. The use of a priori information in PMF is examined, in the form of target factor profiles and pulling profile elements to zero. A Bayesian model using lognormal prior distributions for source profiles and source contributions is fit and examined.

Cloud-To-Ground Flash Characteristics For Atlanta, Georgia (Usa), M.L. Bentley

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

We analyzed the patterns of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flashes around Atlanta, Georgia (USA), a region that has undergone an intense conversion from natural to anthropogenic land uses. For the 12 yr period from 1992 to 2003, annual average CG flash densities of 6 to 8 flashes km–2 emerged around Atlanta. These values are 50 to 75% higher than in the surrounding rural areas, and comparable to flash densities along the Atlantic coast of Georgia. High flash densities extended over a large swath of Atlanta, and into Gwinnett County, a heavily suburbanized, rapidly growing county to the northeast. Urban flash production …

Regulation Of Emission Of Greenhouse Gases And Hazardous Air Pollutants From Motor Vehicles, Steven A.G. Davison

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How Exposure To Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Outdoor Air Pollutants, And Increased Pollen Burdens Influence The Incidence Of Asthma, M I. Gilmour, M S. Jaakola, S J. London, A Nel, Christine A. Rogers

Christine A. Rogers

Asthma is a multifactorial airway disease that arises from a relatively common genetic background interphased with exposures to allergens and airborne irritants. The rapid rise in asthma over the past three decades in Western societies has been attributed to numerous diverse factors, including increased awareness of the disease, altered lifestyle and activity patterns, and ill-defined changes in environmental exposures. It is well accepted that persons with asthma are more sensitive than persons without asthma to air pollutants such as cigarette smoke, traffic emissions, and photochemical smog components. It has also been demonstrated that exposure to a mix of allergens and …

Commonwealth Of Massachusetts V. Epa: Passing The Buck On Regulation Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Daniel Baylson

Villanova Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.