New York City Community Air Survey (NYCCAS)

Across the United States and in New York City, air quality has improved over the last 20 years as a result of measures implemented to meet Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. In 1990, the revised Clean Air Act allowed for the EPA to better enforce regulations reducing air pollutant emissions, limiting the degree of air pollutants across the nation. Nevertheless, air quality in New York City and many other metropolitan areas still does not meet clean air standards, while new scientific studies link air pollution to various public health issues including asthma, heart disease and certain cancers.

As part of the New York City environmental sustainability plan known as PlanNYC, several initiatives have been launched to reduce local emissions beyond the steps required by Federal and State regulations. PlaNYC acknowledged that better information was needed to understand how air quality varies between neighborhoods to better target and prioritize air quality improvement efforts in the future. As a result, The Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene launched the New York City Community Air Survey (NYCCAS) in December 2008.

The NYCCAS program monitors pollutants that cause health problems such as fine particles, nitrogen oxides, elemental carbon (a marker for diesel exhaust particles), sulfur dioxide and ozone. NYCCAS air pollution measurements are taken at 100 locations throughout New York City in each season. Monitors are mounted 10 to 12 feet off the ground on public light poles or utility poles along streets and in some parks. The portable ambient air monitors use battery-powered pumps and filters to collect air samples.

The analysis of the monitoring data involves the use of statistical models, developing associations between measured pollution and sources near the monitoring sites such as traffic density or boilers in buildings. The NYCCAS statistical model provides estimates of air pollution concentrations across New York City.

Steven B. Markowitz, MD, DrPH

Project Director

Tel: (718) 670-4184 / Fax: (718) 670-4167 / Email: smarkowitz@qc.cuny.edu

Steven Markowitz, M.D. is a physician specializing in occupational and environmental medicine. Dr. Markowitz is currently Director of the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment and Professor of Environmental Sciences at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY). He is a faculty member of the CUNY School of Public Health and Adjunct Professor of Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he was on the full- time faculty from 1986 to 1998. He received his undergraduate education at Yale University and his medical degree and doctorate in epidemiology from Columbia University. Dr. Markowitz is board-certified in occupational and environmental medicine and internal medicine.

Dr. Markowitz currently directs the Worker Health Protection Program, a medical screening program for former Department of Energy workers who built the nuclear weapon arsenal of the United States. This program is co-sponsored by the United Steelworkers International Union and the Atomic Trades & Labor Council. This program conducts the largest early lung cancer detection project in occupational health in the country through the application of low-dose helical CAT scanning. To date, over 13,000 workers who were exposed to asbestos, uranium, and other lung carcinogens have been screened for lung cancer in this program.

Dr. Markowitz previously directed the Queens College World Trade Center Health Program , which monitored the health of over 2,000 WTC workers and provided treatment services to WTC workers with 9/11-related health conditions.

Dr. Markowitz' research interests center on occupational and environmental disease surveillance; occupational cancer; asbestos-related diseases; and the burden and costs of occupational diseases and injuries. Dr. Markowitz is Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. He is Associate Editor with William Rom MD of a major textbook, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, (4nd Edition, Lippincott William and Wilkens, New York, 2007, 1884 pp.). Dr. Markowitz is on the Board of Scientific Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program; the World Trade Center Scientific and Technical Advisory Board of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; and the Oversight Committee for the Occupational Health Clinics, New York State Department of Health.