New study investigates why some parts of Seattle have high asthma rates

Dozens of air filters are set to arrive in some South Seattle homes later this year as part of a new study that will explore ways to reduce health and environmental disparities, particularly among children with asthma, in historically more polluted parts of the city.

Researchers and advocates from the University of Washington and the Duwamish River Community Coalition are working together on the project, which recently received a five-year grant from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. The team is focusing on analyzing childhood asthma hospitalization rates in Seattle’s South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods, and finding ways to lower them. 

One idea is to distribute about 80 box fan filters among homes where children struggle with asthma.

“We have known for years that a priority for the community has been to tackle air pollution,” said Paulina Lopez, executive director of the Duwamish River Community Coalition. “We have very poor air quality here in the South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods, and the Duwamish Valley in general, due to industrial facilities, railroad lines, highways and nearby airports.”

Researchers hope the project will build on years of existing work by community advocates to bring attention to neighborhoods with disproportionately high environmental health burdens and risks, Lopez said. 

“We are very concerned kids are missing school and aren’t really learning the way they should because they have to take so many days off [due to asthma symptoms or hospitalizations],” she said.

According to a 2013 study led by Lopez and others from the UW and the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition, children who live in the Duwamish Valley have among the highest rates of hospitalization due to asthma compared with any other neighborhood in the city — about 40% higher than other parts of the city. Because of that, youth asthma hospitalizations were an “obvious focal point,” said UW epidemiologist Dr. Anjum Hajat, who’s working on the project. 

The 2013 report also found the life expectancy in Georgetown and South Park, about 73.3 years, is eight years shorter than the city’s average of about 81.5 years and 13 years shorter than the average of 86.4 years in Laurelhurst. 

In addition, homes in ZIP code 98108 — which include those in Beacon Hill, Georgetown and South Park — had the highest ranking for air pollution and for exposure to confirmed and suspected contaminated sites. 

Where a person lives affects their health, said Hajat, who compared the individual impacts of air pollution to those of smoking.

“We know that when you smoke, it gets inhaled deeply into the lungs and it causes damage,” she said. “Air pollution is actually doing very similar things, there’s just different things in the smoke that you’re inhaling.”

The tiny particles in air pollutants have the capacity to get into our lungs and bloodstream, where they can cause a variety of long-term health problems, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers and other chronic diseases, Hajat said.

“It has long tentacles in terms of the negative health effects it has,” she said.

As part of the study, participating families will not only receive a box fan filter — an affordable and sustainable option for households that hope to continue air-cleaning efforts after the trial — but also indoor air monitors that measure a home’s air quality, and airflow monitors that track asthma symptoms, Hajat said. 

Researchers will track impacts over a three-week period, then return later for a six-month follow-up, Hajat said. 

The study will also launch a local air quality monitoring network that will be used to measure pollutants from vehicle traffic in the area.

“The problem with existing [air quality] networks is it’s for the broader area,” Hajat said. “We know that in the South Park and Georgetown areas, near three highways and Boeing Field, [air pollution] levels just have to be higher there, but we don’t have a great picture of that because the monitors are not picking that up.”

She continued, “That’s why it’s so important to do a finer-scale look and really just try to understand what’s going on because it gets missed when you’re looking at the city as a whole.”

As time progresses, researchers will study changes in the homes’ air quality and children’s asthma symptoms, though it will be several years before final results of the report will be available.

“We’re very excited to embark on this journey with the University of Washington as a community,” Lopez said. “We’re on our way.”