A Tale of New Cities: Linking Air Quality to Public Health

WHITE A Tale of New Cities: PAPER Linking Air Quality to Public Health

From Model Cities to Microenvironments

"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide to treat everything as if it were a nail," American psychologist (CO2), particulate matter (PM), rubber dust from tires, polycyclic Abraham Maslow wrote in 1966.1 Perhaps it is no coincidence aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and volatile organic compounds that Maslow’s Law as it is known was developed at the height (VOCs).6, 7 of the urban renewal craze of the 1960s. We need not look very far to see extreme examples of what these While Maslow was talking about science, he struck a universal compounds can do to the air. Beijing, China, and New Delhi, India, chord. Urban planners, health officials, and public policy makers experience smog so severe, they call it “airpocalypse.” Physicists at were motivated then as they are today by the best of intentions NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory now even suspect that Asian to create their concept of model cities. Unfortunately, they had air pollution may be behind the more intense winter storms only limited technology at their disposal to evaluate thoroughly sweeping across North America.8 Tempting as it may seem to the long-term impact of their decisions. For better or worse, the blame the developing world and its unregulated use of fossil choices made more than a half century ago changed the face fuels for our global weather woes, the old saw about living in of American cities and cites in other countries that followed the glass houses comes to mind. Air, after all, knows no boundaries American lead. Those decisions continue to influence the lives of and its quality—or lack thereof—is an issue in all urban areas countless millions of people even now.2 that use fossil fuels. Perhaps not as visible or intense, urban Consider, for instance, urban air quality. Air pollution is known pollution is as pervasive in Pittsburgh, PA, and Los Angeles, CA, as a major health hazard responsible for chronic respiratory and as it is in Linfen, China, Kabwe, Zambia, or Bogata, Columbia.9 heart illnesses and up to 7 million deaths each year.3 We know that because we now have improved monitoring systems and From Global Concerns to Local Strategies advanced computer modelling capabilities not widely available In Bogata, for example, scientists using portable devices studied until recently. How recent? the presence of particle-related pollutants, called PM, in the The U.S. National Institutes of Health noted in 2012 that the microenvironments of four elementary schools over a two-year quality of outdoor and indoor air is traditionally examined using period. Researchers have long known that children and the expensive, “fixed-site air monitoring units and do not take into elderly are more susceptible to illnesses caused by these airborne consideration the range of urban microenvironments.”4 The particles, from asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory diseases 10 result has been a broad-brush approach to urban air quality to longer-term issues, including cancer. None of the schools was and urban planning decisions that have not taken into account near a manufacturing area, but three were located adjacent to several microenviromental factors. These include the number highways. The results were alarming. Both outdoor and indoor of roads, their grades, and locations; stop signs and stop lights, pollutants at the three schools near major roads measured three prevailing wind directions, the amount of open space versus to six times higher than particles found at the fourth school paved areas, building heights and their density (creating what located in a less congested part of the city. That led researchers are called urban valleys), and, most important, industrial activity to urge city planners to initiate similar studies before building any 11 and traffic patterns.5 new schools in the future. In combination, manufacturing and transportation account for the majority of chemical pollutants in the air. Among the most pervasive are sulphur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), nitric oxide (NO), Similar findings detailing the impact of air pollutants on 3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/25/air-pollution- micro-environments are becoming more plentiful from cities around deaths_n_5027320.html. See also, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. the world.12 Some touch on pollution, pedestrians, and cyclists. gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687917/ Others detail chemical migration from urban manufacturing sites 4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.hih.gov/pubmed/18569618. and pipelines. Still more monitor pollutants and the effect on drivers and public transport passengers. In every instance, they all reach 5. Fabio Galatiolo, et. al., “Understanding the Characteristics pretty much the same conclusion: we cannot manage what we of the Microenvironments in Urban Street canyons Through don’t measure.13 What is needed, scientists insist, is a dense grid Analysis of Pollution Measured Using a Novel Pervasive of sensors throughout urban areas “to capture the spatiotemporal Sensor Array,” Environmental Monitoring and Assessment pollutant variability at the sub-neighborhood scale.”14 In simpliest (2014) 186:7443–7460. terms, we need to track pollutants right down to the streets we live 6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2687917/. on and the buildings we live in. See also, http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/wastemin/ minimize/factshts/pahs.pdf. Welcome to the Technology Revolution 7. http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_vehicles/why-clean-cars/air-pol - How we measure urban air quality is changing rapidly. Advances lution-and-health/cars-trucks-air-pollution.html#.VPoYrvnF-aJ in technology are allowing researchers, urban planners, and 8. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/16/chinese- health officials to augment expensive, stationary air monitoring struggle-through-airpocalypse-smog; see also, http://www. systems with cost-effective, portable units for compliance and npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/03/08/ 391056439/why- community monitoring or personal use. The National Academy chinas-pollution-could-be-behind-our-cold-snowy-winters. of Science refers to these systems as “an emerging science.”15 At PerkinElmer, we call it Elm™, a multi-sensor air sensing 9. http://www.conservationinstitute.org/10-most-polluted-cities- network that houses six of the most advanced sensors in a rugged, in-the-world/. Also http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-most- weatherproof enclosure. These next-generation monitors polluted-places-on-earth/; http://www.drgdiaz.com/air_pollu- tion_bogota.shtml. wirelessly transmit data about VOCs, NO2, O3, PM, and even noise levels via the Internet to advanced computers in 10. http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-0430-air-pollution- near real time that generate easy-to-interpret visual reports. 20140430-story.html. See also, http://www.mibazaar.com/ As the number of portable sensors like Elm proliferates, experts pollutedcities.html envision that they will allow for the development of more accurate 11 http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1205961/; http://www.ing.unal.edu. and comprehensive exposure data on both the community and co/grupos/calidad_aire/doc/39516-175843-2-PB.pdf. personal levels.16 With technology continuing to advance, these See also, http://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/21444 supplementary monitoring systems hold the promise of changing 12 http://www.ing.unal.edu.co/grupos/calidad_aire/doc/39516- how we understand and interact with our environment on both a 175843-2-PB.pdf. macro and micro level. Coupled with other emerging technologies, such wearable fitness devices, reliable air-quality sensors such as 13. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ Elm will also help to reveal a stronger connection between our S135223101200893X; Fabio Galatiolo, et. al., op. cit.; environment and our personal health, predicts the National Academy http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25300018. of Science. That, in turn, will help improve the diagnosis and See also, http://villagegreen.epa.gov/. 17 treatment of disease on a truly personalized basis. Yes, it is an 14. Fabio Galatiolo, et. al., op. cit. See also, emerging science, and PerkinElmer is proud to be at its forefront. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279208/ 15. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ References pubmed/?term=Moltchanov%20S%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor 1. Abraham Maslow, Psychology of Science (1966), p. 15. =true&cauthor_uid=25300018 2. Christopher Klemens, “Model Cities,” in Goldfield, 16. National Academy of Science, Exposure Science in the David R., ed. Encyclopedia of American Urban History (2007), 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy (2012). pp. 484–486. 17. Ibid.

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