The mission of the Ozone Research Center is to study the causes, dynamics and effects of photochemical air pollution (smog), at the fundamental level but with special focus on issues and air quality problems affecting the Northeastern United States and in particular the State of New Jersey. Research at the Center aims both to enhance the scientific understanding of photochemical air pollution systems and associated human exposures and health effects and to provide the necessary scientific rationale for developing and implementing efficient air quality management strategies.

Specifically, the Center is dedicated to the integrated study of photochemical air pollution and associated human exposures, at the regional, local, and microenvironmental scales. This effort covers and combines a wide range of research areas that include:

• The development of methods for improving the estimates of atmospheric emissions of precursors to tropospheric ozone and other photochemical pollutants (including secondary atmospheric aerosols)
• The refinement of the understanding of pollutant chemistry and transport, and of their interactions
• The development of new methods for evaluating the impact of alternative air quality control strategies
• The development and application of methods for assessing human exposure and dose to air pollutants such as ozone and fine PM, as they are affected by demographics, human activity patterns, gender/age, physiology, etc.

What is unique about the Ozone Research Center is the interdisciplinary/integrated approach it has developed for addressing problems associated with complex photochemical pollution systems in a mechanistically consistent framework (a “precursor-to-dose” approach). This approach is based on the synthesis and integration of the scientific and technological principles governing the wide spectrum of physical, chemical and biological processes associated with the ozone problem. The entire sequence of events, from the anthropogenic and biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds, oxides of nitrogen, and other precursors of ozone and fine PM in the atmosphere, to the final point of physiological uptake by the human respiratory system, is studied here. Intermediate steps of this sequence include the atmospheric transport, mixing, accumulation, chemical transformation and removal of ozone/PM and precursors, the transport and fate of ozone/PM in various indoor, in-vehicle and outdoor microenvironments where typically significant exposures take place, and the actual exposure and uptake of ozone and fine PM and other associated pollutants by individuals and populations. The understanding of actual human exposure involves studying space/time distributions and movement and activity patterns of the general population as well as of sensitive subpopulations. This understanding is necessary in order to develop quantitative linkages between observed health outcomes, such as asthma attacks, with ambient air quality.

The need for this interdisciplinary and integrated approach for studying tropospheric ozone dynamics arises from the fact that the processes driving photochemical systems are highly complex and nonlinear. This means that cause and effect in the above mentioned source-to-receptor sequence cannot be linked via simple proportional relationships: for example, a reduction in the emissions of nitrogen oxides will not lead to proportional reductions in ambient ozone levels but instead it could even cause these levels to rise in certain instances. So, a thorough understanding of the actual mechanisms underlying atmospheric pollution and human exposure processes is needed in order to develop rational and robust strategies for managing the ozone problem. This needed integration of scientific disciplines and methods becomes possible thanks to the wide range of expertise available at EOHSI, spanning atmospheric chemistry and physics, engineering, human exposure, dosimetry and toxicology, and other related disciplines, and the high level of interaction among EOHSI scientists.

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