Five-Year Tufts Study Looks at I-93 Air Pollution in Somerville
"Tufts Now" describes a long-term study into the health effects of living near the highway in Somerville and other Boston communities.
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You may have heard of the CAFEH study, CAFEH being an acronym for Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health.
They five-year study, run by Tufts University, is looking at air quality along Interstate 93 in Somerville, Malden, Chinatown and Dorchester.
Tufts Now, one of the university's publications, has a lengthy story describing the study.
It offers some interesting information for Somerville residents on the topic of air quality in the city.
It introduces many of the scientists and community members involved in the study, and it talks about the "ultrafine" particles, resulting from condensed exhaust gases, that exist close to highways and lead to heart disease.
The article takes a look at some of Somerville's efforts to deal with having I-93 run down the middle of it, including an exploration of using window filtration units, installed in homes in the Mystic River housing development, to reduce the effects of living near the highway.
It's worth a read, and you can find the article here.
kevin thomas crowley
8:29 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
they were called " communists, whackos, tree huggers, outside agitators " etc.
but in the end, the good people of east somerville lost the battle to depress route 93 through somerville. yet, they won the war and got rid of the politicians who opposed them, and thus began a new era for somerville.
has the health department done a house by house study of the effects of this pollution on the health of past and present residents of the area?
Jonah Petri
5:41 pm on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Thanks for the great link! It's great to see that this type of study is being done. Please post more on it once their results are available!
Allison Patton
7:05 am on Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Results will be coming in over the next few years. Links to our available technical papers and lay interpretations are available on the website: http://sites.tufts.edu/cafeh/progress/. Thanks for your interest!