NC Statistician to Look at Air Pollution, Asthma, Heart Disease in Humans
Montserrat Fuentes, Ph.D., North Carolina State associate professor of statistics, has received grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine the connection between air pollution, asthma, and cardiovascular disease.
The EPA grant provides Fuentes with $839,439 over three years to look at particulate matter in the atmosphere to determine whether daily exposure increases mortality rates, locations where human beings are in the most danger from exposure, and what the most dangerous rates of exposure may be.
The NIH grant provides $1,086,133 over a three-year period to study the impact of ozone and particulate matter in the atmosphere on cardiovascular disease and asthma.
“We know that atmospheric pollutants are harmful to human health,” Fuentes says, “and more precise information about the connection between particular pollutants and specific diseases will help us set air-quality standards to decrease human exposure and improve the health of people and the environment.”