WASHINGTON -- Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing more than $4.7M in research grants to seven institutions for research to advance measurement and monitoring methods for air toxics and contaminants of emerging concern in the atmosphere.
“While we have made great strides in reducing air pollution, there is still more work to be done to protect public health,” said Maureen Gwinn, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “This research will improve our ability to measure air contaminants and find better strategies for reducing them in the environment.”
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), often referred to as air toxics, are a subset of air pollutants known to cause cancer or other serious health effects. There is extensive evidence that low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionally exposed to air toxics.
The research announced today will focus on developing more robust methods for measuring air toxics, as well as contaminants of emerging concern such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the atmosphere by improving sensitivity and selectivity, as well as cost effectiveness. These more cost-effective measurement techniques can support efforts to address environmental justice concerns; enable a better understanding of the sources and fates of air toxics, and contaminants of emerging concern; and inform the development of effective emission control strategies that will ultimately improve public health.
The following universities are receiving grants:
- New York University, New York City, N.Y., to develop and validate novel passive sampling designs that can be used to measure a diverse suite of air toxics and contaminants of emerging concern at low detection limits, and to deploy them in north Brooklyn to demonstrate their use in addressing concerns about environmental justice.
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., to design and build a mobile platform to quantify and characterize emissions of sub-10 nanometer particles, which are suspected to contribute greatly to the toxicity of particulate matter.
- University of California Davis, Davis, Calif., to develop and test a moderate-cost, portable, small, low-power instrument for near real-time speciation and quantification of volatile organic compounds, including hazardous air pollutants; deploy instrument prototype to communities facing environmental injustices; and work with these communities to understand the results and translate them into actions.
- University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif., to develop an open-source reference instrument and methodology for the operation, validation, and quality assurance and quality control of optical remote sensing monitoring of several air toxics.
- University of California San Diego, San Diego, Calif., to improve online detection and quantification of several understudied toxic plastic additives of emerging concern in atmospheric particles in a coastal marine environment.
- University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C., to combine online, high-resolution chemical ionization mass spectrometers with air- and particle-phase sampling techniques to increase understanding of fugitive emissions of PFAS from stationary point sources.
- Virginia Polytech Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va., to develop, characterize, and demonstrate a low-cost technique for measuring organic hazardous air pollutants.
Learn more about these recipients.