Desert Research Institute air quality scientist Judith Chow has been appointed to the senior U.S. group overseeing the development of research priorities concerning the relationship between tiny, inhalable airborne particles and public health. Her appointment to the National Research Council's Committee on Research Priorities for Airborne Particulate Matter will run through the year 2002.
The committee will assess research needs and priorities, develop a research plan, and monitor the progress of U.S. research toward understanding how the public is affected by fine particles less than one-fiftieth the diameter of a human hair. The committee's study is mandated by Congress and sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr. Chow, a research professor in DRI's Energy and Environmental Engineering Center, is an internationally recognized expert on the collection and analysis of the tiny particles. Their small size allows them to penetrate and deposit in human lungs, aggravating existing respiratory ailments. Based on early research showing a direct relationship between fine particle concentrations and respiratory disease, federal air quality standards have been tightened to require assessment and control of these particles.
Besides being difficult to detect, the smallest airborne particles are often physically and chemically unstable. They may change from solids to gases, or vice versa, or convert into different compounds when they mix with other airborne particles or are exposed to sunlight. This conversion process doesn't necessarily stop after they are captured by sampling instruments, increasing the analytical challenge for scientists and regulators trying to determine the specific sources of the particles.
Chow chaired an international symposium for air quality scientists looking at these issues in January and has had a leadership role in the development of sampling methods and analytical technology for more than a decade. Last fall she was also honored with DRI's Dandini Medal of Science, an annual award that acknowledges DRI's most outstanding scientist.