Transcript Slide 1
Air Pollution Trends Opportunities Jeffrey R. Brook Senior Scientist Air Quality Research Division Air quality has improved considerably Page 2 Long-Term Trend in “Soot” Carbon (mg/m3) Elemental or Black EC (µg/m³) 3.0 EC derived from COH EC 2.5 2.0 1.5 -51% Decrease 1990-2006 1.0 0.5 0.0 1974 1978 1976 1982 1980 1986 1984 1990 1988 1994 1992 Page 3 1998 1996 2002 2000 2006 2004 Courtesy of Tom Dann 2008 Annual Mean Sulphate (mg/m3) Annual Mean PM2.5 (mg/m3) Decreasing Trend in PM2.5 Page 4 Annual Mean NO2 and NO (ppb) Decreasing Trend in NOx Page 5 An Environmental Management Page 6 Ground-level ozone has declined since the early 2000s, however… Large regions encompassing a large fraction of the population still exceed the new National Standard Page 7 Hotspots may still pose risks Ambient Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) levels increasing among monitoring sites near petrochemical industries Page 8 Traffic Air Pollution remains an important source of exposure for many Canadians Air pollution effects occur down to low concentrations Page 9 Given what has and is expected to be done to regulate emissions … What else could be considered? Page 10 Health Benefits of Reducing Diesel Exposure “Scientific evidence is compelling” http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/2012/mono105-info.php Page 11 New diesels are much cleaner Legacy heavy duty diesels are potentially on and off our roads for multiple decades to come $460M Page 12 There are also opportunities to improve air quality in Canada through retrofits of the legacy diesel fleet Some assessments Some small pilot tests Page 13 Air pollution is a factor in asthma and allergy development and/or exacerbation and much of our exposure is “involuntary” However, all aspects of a child’s environment need to be considered to optimize preventive strategies Knowledge is still lacking to do this Page 14 Birth Cohort Examining the Origins of Asthma and Allergy A national platform for multi-disciplinary research on environment and health From asthma to other chronic diseases that develop through the life course Exposures N = 3600 Pollution Work & School environment Home environment Genetics Immune phenotypes Clinical phenotypes Stress Diet Viruses SES Pets Page 15 CHILD is currently following children in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver Overall air pollution and traffic air pollution are being studied along with many other environmental factors Stay tuned ! Page 16