SACRAMENTO – Today the Air Resources Board granted $2.2 million to eight university and research institutes that will investigate air pollution emissions, exposures, and health effects.

The $2.2 million is matched by $3.5 million in co-funding from the California Energy Commission, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The projects will examine various aspects of air pollution including in-vehicle exposures, mechanisms for testing pollutant emissions and the economic effects of cleaning California's air.

"Research projects like these create a map of air pollution in California," said Mary Nichols, Chairman of the Air Resources Board. "They give us targets, tools and strategies for effective and economically sound regulations."

Funds awarded today will go to:

• University of California, Irvine, $500,000: measure and model in-vehicle concentrations of key air pollutants and apply the results to estimate in-transit exposures for a health study of pregnant women and infants;
• Southern Research Institute, $102,722: evaluate instruments that measure real-time particulate matter emissions from a variety of fuels;
• University of California, Riverside, $200,041: improve its environmental chamber used to examine the examine the ozone-forming potential of architectural coatings;
• University of California, Irvine, $400,000: measure greenhouse gas emissions and better understand air pollution formation over California using the NASA DC-8 research aircraft;
• University of Wisconsin-Madison, $409,962: identify the sources that contribute to PM2.5 in the South Coast Angeles Basin;
• West Virginia University, $349,996: building on a prior study of diesel engines, scrutinize the toxicity of particulate matter emissions from heavy-duty compressed natural gas engines with state-of-the-art after-treatment technology;
• Caleb Management Services, Limited, $349,758: for the State's global warming program, quantify the amount and types of greenhouse emissions embedded in foam insulation in California; and,
• Environmental Business International, Inc., $196,211: define the climate change industry and characterize its current and future status relative to the California economy.

ARB's research program guides and supports clean air efforts by completing its own research and sponsoring research by others. Information gleaned from research enables ARB to craft regulatory measures with the minimum cost and maximum health-benefits.

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