NewsWatch: 2005: Air pollution grant

[Narrator:] From the University of California at Davis, this is NewsWatch.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Agricultural dust, diesel soot, and other air pollutants generated in the San Joaquin Valley may be causing serious health problems.

[Kent Pinkerton:] We're very much interested in understanding how ambient particles that we do find in the valley do affect human health. I think it's very important to keep in mind that the particles that we're breathing every day are very complex, they come from multiple sources, and they can be different from one day to the next, from one season to the next.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] As a result, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded UC Davis an $8 million grant to study how these microscopic particles in air pollution harm human health. UC Davis will be home to one of five new air pollution national research centers that will share a combined $40 million over the next five years. The campus's new San Joaquin Valley Aerosol Health Effects Center will be looking at very small particles that can be inhaled and cause severe respiratory diseases. Tony Wexler, an expert in airborne pollution,
says the source of these small particles is mostly combustion.

[Tony Wexler:] Mostly the tail pipe from a car, a power plant, or burning wood in a fireplace. All kinds of high temperature processes.

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] Wexler says there are two questions they want to answer.

[Tony Wexler:] What is it about the particles that cause the health effects? And the second question is, what health effects are they causing?

[Paul Pfotenhauer:] The San Joaquin Valley has some of the most polluted air in the country, and one of the highest childhood asthma rates.
Reporting from UC Davis, I'm Paul Pfotenhauer.

[Narrator:] For more information please log on to broadcast.ucdavis.edu.