NERAM COLLOQUIUM II

Interpreting Epidemiological Studies of Acute & Long Term Exposure to Particulate Matter for Policy Development

November 21-22, 2002
Baltimore, Maryland

Program

Objective
The first Colloquium in the series “Health and Air Quality 2001” served as a forum for sharing Canadian and U.S. regulatory perspectives on PM standard development, reviewing the policy-relevant findings of the re-analysis of the Harvard Six City Study and the American Cancer Society study of particulate air pollution and mortality, and identifying key scientific research needs for policy making.

The re-analysis of cohort and time series studies provides a foundation for the evaluation of health effects from long-term and short-term exposure to airborne particulate matter. While analytic methods for the evaluation of data from epidemiological studies are relatively well established, there is considerable need for further development. The second Colloquium will serve as a forum for discussing alternative existing methodological approaches and exploring innovative methods for estimating the effects of airborne particulate matter on public health. The Colloquium will provide important insight into contentious issues in the interpretation of the associations between air quality and public health and implications for policy decisions. The Colloquium will benchmark the current and near term expectations for research results to guide policy development for reducing health impacts of particulate matter air pollution.