EPA Supersite - Carnegie Mellon University

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Airborne particulate matter (PM) continues to pose serious health risks for susceptible members of the U.S. population and for sensitive ecosystems. Design of cost-effective PM control strategies is limited by the lack of understanding of the PM-health effects links which is exacerbated by a paucity of physiological data, the difficulty of establishing the PM source-receptor relationships, and finally the limitations of existing instrumentation for PM measurements. The Pittsburgh Air Quality Study (PAQS) is a comprehensive multidisciplinary set of projects in the Pittsburgh region, which will address the above issues. PAQS is led by Carnegie Mellon University (Professors Spyros Pandis (ChE/EPP), Cliff Davidson (CEE/EPP), and Allen Robinson (ME/EPP) and includes investigators from twelve universities, two national laboratories, two private companies, and state and local air pollution agencies. PAQS is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

The objectives of the Pittsburgh Air Quality Study are:

to characterize PM (size, surface, and volume distribution, chemical composition as a function of size and on a single particle basis, morphology, and temporal and spatial variability) in the Pittsburgh region;
to quantify the impact of the various sources (transportation, power plants, biogenic, etc.) to the PM concentrations in the area;
and to develop and evaluate the next generation of atmospheric aerosol monitoring techniques (single particle measurements, continuous composition measurements, ultrafine aerosol measurements, improved organic component characterization, etc.).

Combining the ambient monitoring study with the indoor, health, and modeling studies will allow PAQS to:

elucidate the links between PM characteristics and their health impacts;
quantify the relationship between indoor and outdoor concentrations;
and quantify the responses of PM characteristics to changes in emissions to support regulation development.