Alison G. Lee, MD

Concentrations of indoor air pollution can exceed those found outdoors. We will investigate whether prenatal exposure to indoor air pollution alters infant lung development thereby increasing future disease risk. We will continue recruitment of a pregnancy cohort, recruiting pregnant persons from Elmhurst Hospital, a New York City public hospital in Queens, New York. We will assess how prenatal indoor air pollution exposure affects infant lung function, respiratory symptoms and growth. We will work in partnership with community partners to develop an education program to raise awareness of indoor air pollution and to design and test a sustainable solution to lower indoor air pollution concentrations. In the long run, our research will help demonstrate the impact of indoor air pollution on lung health and discover cost-effective ways to improve indoor air quality.

Anne Powell Riley Indoor Air Research Award

Update: To date, we have enrolled over 90 pregnant women in the study, and we are successfully following them over gestation, through delivery and into early childhood. In addition to obtaining clinical data, we use several questionnaires to understand neighborhood and individual level environmental exposures and pertinent health outcomes. We are performing indoor air quality assessment during pregnancy. In general, the data gathered show high air pollution exposures during cooking and, on average, indoor exposures indoors exceed outdoor exposures. We also observed high air pollution exposures in homes during extreme wildfire events when ambient air quality was poor. We are also in the final stages of preparation for our Community Advisory Board and Focus Group discussions are indoor air quality and devising feasible and sustainable solutions for healthier indoor air.