The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $2.12 million grant to Dr. Eun Sug Park from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) and Dr. Elaine Symanski of Baylor College of Medicine to support a four-year study evaluating the impact of a regulatory intervention to reduce shipping emissions on public health. This is TTI’s first direct NIH award. Dr. Park will serve as the contact principal investigator for the entire project and lead the research efforts at TTI.
“Concerns about adverse health effects of shipping emissions have been rising globally,” says Park. “The main objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of the mandatory reduction of vessel fuel sulfur content in the North American Emission Control Area on total and cause-specific mortality and hospital admissions for Harris County residents.”
The study employs innovative exposure assessment and causal inference methods, including spatially enhanced advanced source apportionment (Bayesian spatial multivariate receptor modeling) and the concept of counterfactual outcomes, along with a statistically valid study design to address the issues of bias resulting from spatial misalignment and unmeasured confounding due to non-marine sources. The study also aims to evaluate potential differences in the impact of the intervention among groups based on race/ethnicity, neighborhood disadvantage, sex and age.
Tangible outcomes of the study will include temporally- and spatially resolved source-specific air pollution surfaces due to shipping emissions and other major pollution sources in Harris County, Texas, which can be adapted in future investigations both in Houston and throughout the nation and used to develop targeted interventions to mitigate health risks.