<p> Respiratory health is closely linked to air quality. Globally, poor indoor and outdoor air quality create immense public health burden of disease and disability that is most evident in rural regions of low and middle income nations. To date, Southeast Asia (SEA) boasts a number of emerging economies; however, rapid economic growth comes at a cost, and environmental pollution, especially air pollution, and tobacco use remain obvious threats to health. In rural SEA, a paucity of health data adds to the present problem that includes community level risk factors that include indoor cooking fire smoke, domestic dust-dirt exposure, and agricultural animal handling. Individual risk factors for respiratory disease such as an unstudied form of tobacco use known as "bamboo water pipe smoking" is prevalent in rural SEA and considered socially acceptable (Centers for Disease Control &amp; World Health Organization, 2010); however, the exposure to carbon monoxide and health risks from its use remains unknown. This form of water-filtered tobacco use may produce byproducts of combustion that might affect respiratory health and lung function, and if it does, is without evidence. Prior studies of water-filtered smoking include the Eastern Mediterranean tobacco water pipe (i.e. hookah) and indicate that high levels of carbon monoxide inhaled by the smoker. Notably, myths or beliefs attributed to the safety of a tobacco water-bath filtered smoke have been unsupported. </p><p> In the presented dissertation, I continue the assessment of water-filtered tobacco smoke and present two studies that include the first in-field investigation of bamboo water- pipe use, carbon monoxide exposure, and lung function using a sample of rural adult males from Laos PDR. In my first study, I examine carbon monoxide exposure in bamboo water pipe smokers in assessing water-filtered tobacco smoke. In my second study, I report findings from the first lung function (spirometry) assessment of bamboo water pipe smokers of rural Laos PDR. Findings of both my studies indicate that 1) water-filtered bamboo water pipe smoking does not remove carbon monoxide prior to inhalation; 2) bamboo water pipe use produces compatible carbon monoxide to cigarette use; 3) bamboo water pipe use may harm lung function; and 4) community level risk factors in rural areas of Southeast Asia (i.e. cooking fire smoke) may be harmful to health. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the health effects from bamboo water pipe use and community level risk factors in rural areas of Southeast Asia.</p>

A study on community exposure to Foray 48B, a biological insecticide, due to aerial spraying.

This report presents the results of the first phase of a study examining the occupational and environmental exposures of residents of a coastal British Columbia community to organochlorine compounds.

Revised July 2003. A field comparison of four bioaerosol samplers, the Reuter Centrifugal Sampler (RCS), the Andersen N6 Single Stage (N6), the Surface Air System Super 90, and the Air-o-Cell sampler (AOC), was conducted in a variety of public buildings for the measurement of fungal aerosols to compare sampling performance efficiencies and to collect baseline data for a pool of buildings.

Conclusions that can be drawn from earlier studies on noise and children’s blood pressure are limited due to inconsistent results, methodological problems and the focus on school noise exposure. This paper reports on a study investigating the effects of aircraft and road traffic noise exposure on children’s blood pressure and heart rate.

Part of the Border Air Quality Study is the linking of a birth cohort, consisting of all children born in the Georgia Air Basin of British Columbia during 1999-2002, with residential air pollution exposure histories beginning at conception. The goal of this study is to determine the impact of air pollution on various health outcomes (adverse birth outcomes, bronchiolitis, otitis media, bronchitis, and asthma) during prenatal and early childhood development. The birth cohort has been linked to the BC Perinatal Database Registry. This report describes a chart abstraction study, conducted at BC Women and Children’s Hospital, to determine the consistency of key information on maternal risk factor data and to asses the reliability of data coding from patient hospital charts and prenatal care into the perinatal database. BC Women and Children's Hospital was selected for the chart review because it has the largest number of births in the province (approximately 7,000/year).

A study to examine the range of expected concentrations of particles and other traffic related air pollutants at roadside and non-roadside locations and to link measured concentrations to geographic variables.

An assessment of public health impacts associated with ambient air pollution.

An investigation into the acute and long-term health impacts associated with exposure to biomass fires in Southeast Asia.

This project uses remote sensing data and ground based air monitoring data to develop a regional database of particulate air pollution levels and assesses population exposure to air pollution associated with the Southeast Asian forest fires 1997-1998.