Link between ozone, lung health examined

Birmingham’s poor air quality could have an impact on children and their lung growth and development, as well as the induction of asthma. “Despite enormous amounts of research on the health effects of ozone, there still are fundamental questions we don’t know the answers to, such as how ozone causes lung injury and if children’s exposure to ozone causes any long lasting effects,” said Dr. Edward Postlethwait, a professor in UAB's Department of Environmental Health Sciences. Researchers here and at multiple other institutions are working together to find the answers to these questions. UAB has received a three-year $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to be the lead institution in a study of the effects of air pollution exposure on lung growth and development and the induction of asthma. Twenty-four other researchers from seven other institutions are participating in the study. “We have put together a multi-institutional, multi-investigator, interdisciplinary program,” Postlethwait said. Other institutions involved in the program are the University of California at Davis, Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, Louisiana State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, CIIT Centers for Health Research and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Postlethwait said this is the first program that he knows of its kind that is utilizing the expertise of biochemists, anatomists, chemical engineers and other professionals working toward a common goal. “If we’re as successful as we all anticipate, I think this can be used as a paradigm for conducting this type of collaborative work,” he said. Because the program will include the development of models to understand airflow patterns across a developing lung, Postlethwait, said “that information can be used in other research arenas independent of the study of air pollution’s effects.” He said the program will establish a centralized data base for other investigators to use for their own creative purposes. “We will have a Web site here. In time, that Web site will act as a conduit for us to disseminate information to other investigators,” he said.

Extracted from the UAB reporter August 11, 2003. Vol 27, No 40
BY Stephanie Hasbrouck