Faculty experts:

Where the Ocean Meets the Air Pollution

Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, a chemistry professor, studies chemical reactions in the lower and upper atmospheres to better understand air pollution in urban and remote areas. She directs AirUCI – Atmospheric Integrated Research Using Chemistry at Interfaces – an effort to better understand how air and water interact in the atmosphere and how those processes affect air quality and global climate change. Finlayson-Pitts has studied the effects of sea salt on urban smog formation, as well as how chemical reactions on the surfaces of buildings and roads affect urban air quality and models of air pollution. Finlayson-Pitts can be reached at (949) 824-7670 or bjfinlay@uci.edu.
Additional contact: Jennifer Fitzenberger, (949) 824-3969, jfitzen@uci.edu

Predicting Air Pollution

Donald Dabdub, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, researches atmospheric science. His research found that air-quality models used to predict air pollution might have underestimated ozone levels in Southern California by as much as 10 percent of the national one-hour ozone standard. Dabdub’s work focuses on the mathematical modeling of urban and global air pollution and understanding the dynamics of atmospheric aerosols. He also is interested in the impact of energy generation on air quality. Dabdub can be reached at (949) 824-6126 or ddabdub@uci.edu.
Additional contact: Jennifer Fitzenberger, (949) 824-3969, jfitzen@uci.edu

Straight to the Source

F. Sherwood Rowland, Donald Bren Research Professor of chemistry and Earth system science, and Donald Blake, professor of chemistry and Earth system science, lead a research group that is studying the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. Researchers analyze air samples collected on land, ships and aircraft. Their goal: identify sources of air pollution. The group also is studying the atmosphere in areas that are prone to forest fires. Rowland won the Nobel Prize in 1995 for research that showed the link between chlorofluorocarbons in products such as aerosol cans and the depletion of the ozone layer. Rowland can be reached at (949) 824-6016 or rowland@uci.edu. Blake can be reached at (949) 824-4195 or drblake@uci.edu.
Additional contact: Jennifer Fitzenberger, (949) 824-3969, jfitzen@uci.edu


Room in Your Heart for Ultrafine Particle Pollution

Dr. Ralph Delfino, an associate professor of environmental epidemiology, studies the effects of air pollutants on respiratory and cardiovascular health. He is leading one of the nation’s first public health studies to understand how ultrafine particles in urban air pollution contribute to coronary heart disease in the elderly. Ultrafine particles, primarily produced by engine combustion and photochemical processes in California cities, easily absorb into the blood stream from the lungs and can damage blood vessels and other organs. In 2005, Delfino won a clean-air award from the South Coast Air Quality Management District for his contributions to cleaner air. Delfino can be reached at (949) 824-1767 or rdelfino@uci.edu.
Additional contact: Jennifer Fitzenberger, (949) 824-3969, jfitzen@uci.edu


Air Pollution May Affect Children More Harshly

While air pollution can have ill effects on all people, children are likely to face greater risks of developing lung diseases from air pollutants. Robert Phalen, director of UCI’s Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory, has spent more than 20 years studying the link between air pollutants and asthma, bronchitis and emphysema. Currently, Phalen is taking part in a large Environmental Protection Agency effort to calculate the lung volume difference between children and adults in relationship to the unique exposures and amounts of pollutants that enter their lungs. Children breathe in more air per pound than adults, and their airways are more efficient in trapping pollutants. “Because of this, air pollution can affect children up to nine times more harshly than adults,” Phalen said. “Studies like these help us learn to predict how air pollution levels will affect children by what we know of their impact on adults. This is important, because asthma has become the No. 1 chronic disease keeping kids out of school.” In addition, Phalen’s latest book, The Particulate Air Pollution Controversy, looks at the cause and effect relationship between air pollution and human health. To interview Phalen, contact Tom Vasich at (949) 824-6455 or tmvasich@uci.edu.
 

Freeway Exhaust May Accelerate Lung Conditions

Vehicle emissions are responsible for a great deal of urban air pollution, but their effects on chronic lung diseases are not as widely understood. Michael Kleinman, a community and environmental health and medicine researcher, is discovering how environmental exposures in close proximity to sources of vehicle exhaust from heavily trafficked freeways accelerate lung conditions including asthma. Kleinman uses the nation’s most busy freeway interchange, located just south of downtown Los Angeles, for his tests, where he places mice already exposed to asthma-like allergens in specially developed exposure chambers next to the freeway traffic. He also tests exposures at distances progressively further away, 100 and 500 meters downwind from the interchange. He has found that the closer the mice are to traffic, the more prone they are to suffer from lung-based allergic reactions from pre-existing conditions. “Ultrafine particulate matter from the exhaust is 10 times higher next to the freeway than at other testing sites,” Kleinman says. “And since diesel trucks make up 20 to 30 percent of the traffic, there may be a correlation, especially since these trucks do not face the same exhaust standards in California that cars do.” Contact Michael Kleinman at (949) 824-4765, mtkleinm@uci.edu
Additional contact: Tom Vasich, (949) 824-6455, tmvasich@uci.edu