National Jewish Receives Major Grant To Study Air Pollution and Asthma

National Jewish Medical and Research Center has received a three-year, $525,000 grant from the Thrasher Research Fund to study the long-term effects of poor air quality on children with asthma. Researchers will also determine if cleaning the air in the children's homes can improve their health.

The grant will allow National Jewish pediatric researchers Nathan Rabinovitch, MD, and Erwin Gelfand, MD, to quantify the long-term effects of airborne particulates measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) on lung function and asthma exacerbations in children with moderate to severe asthma. PM2.5 particles result from combustible sources, such as tobacco smoke and automobile exhaust. When inhaled, they can be deposited in the small airways of the lung. The researchers will also determine if environmental interventions that decrease PM2.5 exposure, such as air purifiers and HEPA-filter vacuuming, result in sustained improvements in children's lung function.

"Our goal is to better understand the role air pollution plays in the health of children with asthma and to see if we can protect them against potential harm caused by small particles in the air," said Dr. Gelfand, Chairman of the National Jewish Department of Pediatrics.

Affecting more than 6 million American children, asthma is now the most common chronic disease of childhood. Despite major improvements in treatments and medications, asthma rates have more than doubled in the last 10 years, particularly in urban settings, which generally have more air pollution from combustible sources.

Researchers will enlist the volunteer help of students who attend the Kunsberg School on the National Jewish campus, a K-7 school for children who suffer from asthma and other chronic diseases. The students will carry portable air-quality monitoring devices, which can be worn like a backpack or waistpack. These devices directly measure PM2.5 particles in the air that the students breathe at home, at school, or playing outside. Previous research at National Jewish by this team indicated that it is vital to monitor this "personal cloud," because it better gauges a child's exposure to pollution than do stationary monitors that measure air pollution on a regional scale. Air pollution monitors will also be placed in the homes of participants.

Half the students' families will receive air purifiers for their homes and be asked to vacuum frequently with a high-efficiency-particle-arresting (HEPA) filter vacuum. The students' lung function will be measured daily. Over a three-year period, researchers will gather and analyze data to determine whether, and how much, asthma severity can be reduced by cleaning the air the children breathe.

Data previously gathered by Rabinovitch and Gelfand, suggest that air pollution does exacerbate asthma and that decreased PM2.5 exposures are associated with increases in pulmonary function over a six-week period. What is unknown, and will be explored in this study, are the long-term effects of the pollution and its reduction in the home.

"We're grateful to the Thrasher Research Fund for partnering with us," said Dr. Rabinovitch, the principal investigator for the study. "What we learn could give us a much wider range of tools for preventing and treating asthma and other lung diseases, with approaches that do not involve the use of drugs alone."

"We are pleased to fund a research project that has the potential for impacting the health of so many children who are affected by respiratory conditions," said Dr. A. Dean Byrd, President of the Thrasher Research Fund. "Particularly, we are fortunate that such world-renowned scientists such as Drs. Rabinovitch and Gelfand will be guiding this research."

The Salt Lake City-based Thrasher Research Fund was made possible through the generosity of E.W. "Al" Thrasher in the mid 1970's to provide grants that foster an environment of creativity and discovery aimed at finding solutions to children's health problems, particularly those that have been insufficiently researched or investigated.

National Jewish is the only medical and research center in the U.S. devoted entirely to lung, allergic and immune diseases. Founded in 1899, this institution is devoted to research and clinical programs for both children and adults.