Research Projects

Little is known about whether air pollution exposure during early life has life-long impacts. Some have speculated that air pollution exposure during the early childhood lung development period could alter lung and immune system development in ways that increase susceptibility to lung-related morbidity later in life. This project will investigate the impact of early childhood exposure to ozone and PM on lung function development, and development of immune system parameters that modulate responses to infectious disease and contribute to lung function decline with aging. The study will involve a cohort of rhesus monkeys that was born during the three month period prior to the wildfires that impacted the Sacramento Valley during June and July 2008. Half of the cohort has lived outdoors since birth, and was exposed to the elevated air pollution concentrations that occurred during the fires, while the other half of the cohort was born and raised indoors in highly filtered air so that they are specific pathogen free. The results will address a key data gap, namely, the influence of early childhood exposure to ambient air pollution during childhood, and whether air pollution-related alterations in lung function and immune parameters persist into adulthood. The results will contribute to development of ambient air quality standards that adequately protect the health of children, widely considered a particularly vulnerable sub-population.