Peter DeCarlo

When #JohnsHopkins scientists drove their air testing van to #CancerAlley they didn’t have a lot of pre-existing studies to compare to. And the #petrochemicalindustry self-reports to the EPA. What they found astonished them. What does it mean for the people there? Go to bit.ly/3STi1AP to learn more.

YouTube video by Environmental Health & Engineering - Johns Hopkins Chemicals in Our Air: From Climate to Health

Here's a little preview of what we've been working on here at @johnshopkinsehe.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0sd...

Environmental Health Works (#EHWorks) - YouTube The air we breathe, water we drink, food we eat, and where we live, work, and play are all crucial determinants of our health and the health of our families....

A belated earth day to all! Sharing a channel of short videos discussing the importance of environmental health research and keeping the planet and ourselves healthy: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Our in country partners at ICIMOD were instrumental in the success of this project, and communicated these results to local officials.

We collectively learned so much from this work, trained the next generation of scientists, and advanced our understanding of air quality. ❤️ NSF funding for this!

Pre-monsoon submicron aerosol composition and source contribution in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal The Kathmandu Valley in Nepal suffers from unhealthy air quality, with mean pre-monsoon submicron particulate matter concentration (PM1) of 40 μg m−3 and daily peaks over 75 μg m−3. A high-resolution ...

Ben Werden from my group included additional air quality assessment papers for the KTM valley using AMS source apportionment and comparing with the filter based source apportionment (finding generally good agreement).
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
and
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Ambient air quality in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, during the pre-monsoon: concentrations and sources of particulate matter and trace gases Abstract. The Kathmandu Valley in Nepal is a bowl-shaped urban basin that experiences severe air pollution that poses health risks to its 3.5 million inhabitants. As part of the Nepal Ambient Monitori...

Islam et al. from the Stone Group had a series of papers on Ambient Air Quality from different areas KTM valley and Lumbini and in different seasons:
acp.copernicus.org/articles/20/...
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
and pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Speciated online PM1 from South Asian combustion sources – Part 1: Fuel-based emission factors and size distributions Abstract. Combustion of biomass, garbage, and fossil fuels in South Asia has led to poor air quality in the region and has uncertain climate forcing impacts. Online measurements of submicron aerosol (...

Doug Goetz from my group used a mini-Aerosol Mass Spectrometer to look at emission factors, size resolved composition, and mass spectral (chemical fingerprints) of these particulate sources:
Goetz et al. acp.copernicus.org/articles/18/...
and
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

We started by characterizing south asian sources of air pollution: Stockwell et al. acp.copernicus.org/articles/16/... looked at trace gases and light-absorbing carbon.
Jayarathne et al. acp.copernicus.org/articles/18/... used filter based measurements to focus on particulate matter

10 years ago, my group went to Kathmandu in to participate in the NAMaSTE project (NSF sponsored) to measure sources and ambient air quality. An earthquake, stranded instruments, and recovery delayed our work, but we stuck with it and the whole team produced impactful work.

Why the health risks from air pollution could be worse than we thought A new study found elevated and previously overlooked health risks for communities living near industrial polluters.

The @washingtonpost.com covered our new cumulative risk paper: www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Great story by Amudalat Ajasa.

cc: @petedecarlo.bsky.social

Wait, do I have to start using Bluesky now?

New paper: super excited about working with risk scientists to systematically address how all the stuff we breathe (at least what we can measure) adds up to different health risks.

A Ride in a Chemical-Sniffing Van Shows How Heat Amps Up Pollution In heat waves, chemicals like formaldehyde and ozone can form more readily in the air, according to researchers driving mobile labs in New York City this week.

How nice to see @petedecarlo.bsky.social in my inbox! www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/c...