EPA Awards Almost $2M to University of California for Research to Better Detect, Reduce Air Toxics
Grants are funding projects at UC Davis, UC Los Angeles and UC San Diego
SAN FRANCISCO (May 19, 2022) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a total of $1,997,949 in research grants to three University of California campuses—UC Davis, UC Los Angeles and UC San Diego—for research to advance measurement and monitoring methods for air toxics and contaminants of emerging concern in the atmosphere. In total, seven institutions were selected to receive more than $4.7 million in grants across the country.
“Though EPA has made progress on improving air quality we are committed to further reducing contaminants in air, especially in our underserved communities here in the Pacific Southwest,” said Martha Guzman, EPA Regional Administrator for America’s Pacific Southwest. “We are therefore proud to support this crucial research being undertaken by California universities. EPA’s grants will help create improved tools for monitoring and ultimately reducing emissions.”
“EPA lists 188 hazardous air pollutants that can mostly be divided to two categories: toxic metals and toxic volatile organic compounds. In prior work funded by the California Air Resources Board we developed a new instrument for measuring the toxic metals that is about 1/50th the cost of current instruments,” said University of California – Davis Professor Anthony S. Wexler. “In the work just funded by the EPA, we will develop a new, inexpensive, light and low-power instrument for measuring the toxic volatile organic compounds. Both of these instruments will help communities assess the air they breathe and motivate emissions controls if hazardous air pollutants are detected.”
"Plastic waste represents one of the greatest environmental threats to our planet; however, very limited quantitative information is available to constrain their impact in different environments. This project will employ a novel approach to quantitatively measure in-situ toxic additives found in plastics and personal care products in aerosol at the beach,” said University of California – San Diego Assistant Professor of Chemistry Jonathan H. Slade. “The results from this study will help constrain the sources and factors affecting their emission in air at the coast in San Diego, so we can better understand potential health risks."
Hazardous air pollutants, often referred to as air toxics, are a subset of air pollutants known to cause cancer or other serious health effects. There is extensive evidence that low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionally exposed to air toxics.
The research announced today will focus on developing more robust methods for measuring air toxics, as well as contaminants of emerging concern such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) present in the atmosphere. The goal of the research being funded is improving sensitivity and selectivity, as well as cost effectiveness. These more cost-effective measurement techniques can support efforts to address environmental justice concerns; enable a better understanding of the sources and fates of air toxics as well as contaminants of emerging concern; and inform the development of effective emission control strategies that will ultimately improve public health.
The grants will fund the following projects in California:
- University of California - Davis will receive $799,660 to develop and test a moderate-cost, portable, small, low-power instrument for near real-time speciation and quantification of volatile organic compounds, including hazardous air pollutants; deploy instrument prototype to communities facing environmental injustices; and work with these communities to understand the results and translate them into actions.
- University of California - Los Angeles will receive $798,825 to develop an open-source reference instrument and methodology for the operation, validation, and quality assurance and quality control of optical remote sensing monitoring of several air toxics.
- University of California - San Diego will receive $399,464 to improve online detection and quantification of several under-studied toxic plastic additives of emerging concern in atmospheric particles in a coastal marine environment.
Learn more about these recipients.
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