230349 Do EPA Tier II-compliant diesel engines reduce lobstermen's diesel exhaust exposure?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Ariel Piedmont , Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Thomas J. Smith, MPH, PhD , Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Robert Herrick, SD , Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Ann Backus, MS , School of Public Health EHSC Center, Harvard University, Boston, MA
Diesel exhaust (DE) is an occupational exposure with health effects that include headaches, nausea, cancer and respiratory disease. Funded by the Harvard ERC, this study compares exposures of lobstermen before and after replacement of old diesel engines with new EPA Tier II diesel engines installed on 19 lobster boats. [U.S. EPA Region I provided a grant to the Maine Marine Trades Association in partnership with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for the marine engine replacement program.] Data were collected during lobster fishing activities between July 2009 and June 2010 to test the hypothesis that the Tier II engines result in less DE exposure. Real-time sampling instruments were used according to standard protocols. Particle collectors with a 2.5 µm cutoff were used with a personal sampling pump to collect airborne mass on teflon filters to determine the concentration of PM2.5. Collectors with a 1.0 µm cutoff were used with a glass fiber filter to measure elemental and organic carbon content of PM. Preliminary analysis of the pre-engine exchange data showed PM2.5 exposures ranging from 9-104 µg/m3 with an average of 48 µg/m3 across 19 boats. Post-engine exchange data will be collected in May/June 2010. Exposure levels for elemental carbon (a marker for DE) will be compared with EPA and NIOSH standards.

Learning Areas:
Occupational health and safety
Public health or related education
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Discuss how diesel exhaust exposures from EPA Tier II diesel engines differ from that of older diesel engines.

Keywords: Underserved Populations, Occupational Exposure

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I worked with the student to design the study, provided the interface between funders, and undertake a lot of occupational health and safety education with fishermen on the east coast.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.