Houston Mayor

1
Houston Mayors Task Force on Improving Air
Quality

• Charge and activities

2
Task Force members

• UT School of Public Health
• Ken Sexton (Chair)
• Stephen Linder (Coordinator)
• George Delclos
• Thomas Stock
• MD Anderson
• Melissa Bondy
• Baylor
• Stuart Abramson
• Rice
• Matthew Fraser

• UT Medical Branch, Galveston
• Jonathan Ward
• Ex officio
• James Willerson (President, UTHSCH)
• Guy Parcel (Dean, UTSPH)
• Elena Marks (Mayors office)

3
Charge from Mayor Bill White to the Task Force

• Review and summarize available evidence on health
  risks associated with air pollution in the
  Houston area
• Recommend areas of research needed to allow
  regional leaders to make better decisions on
  strategies for reducing pollution
• Provide guidance to the city on strategies for
  reducing health risks

4
Key projects

• Emission-concentration analysis
• Hot spot analysis
• Risk assessment and analysis
• Relation between adverse health effects and local
  ambient air pollution

5
Organization

• Emissions exposure sub-group
• Health effects sub-group

6
Emission concentration analysis

• Relation between ambient air concentration data
  from selected monitors and emissions data from
  important sources
• Source attribution Identify downwind
  communities affected by priority hazardous air
  pollutants
• More precise understanding of relationship
  between emissions and ambient air concentrations

7
Hot spots analysis

• Assess facility emissions of HAPs and model
  downwind impacts
• Create risk maps that identify neighborhood
  exposures and potential health effects

8
Risk assessment and analysis

• Generate quantitative estimates of human health
  risks for specific chemicals in neighborhoods
• Assess cumulative risk for vulnerable populations
• Quantify risks from individual and combined
  effects of pollutants in communities

9
Health effects and air pollution levels

• Examine relationship between medical encounters
  for environmental illnesses and pollution levels
• Assess connection between well-documented health
  conditions and air pollution levels

10
Information sources

• Scientific literature
• Air monitoring data
• Atmospheric modeling data
• EPA and California risk assessments
• Local demographic and health data
• Consultation with experts

11
Information gaps

• Accurate emissions inventories
• Detailed air monitoring for HAPs
• More detailed modeling data
• Environmental health data
• More sensitive measures of exposure and
  biological effects
• Better understanding of cumulative risks and
  community vulnerability