Health Effects of Fine Particulate Air Pollution: Lines that Connect

This discussion was compiled from written submissions and presentation transcripts, which were revised for conciseness and to minimize redundancy.Substantial deviations from the intent of a discussant are unintentional and can be addressed in a follow-up letter to the Journal.The invited discussants are as follows: • Dr. Joe L. Mauderly is vice president and senior scientist at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute.He specializes in research on comparative respiratory physiology, comparative pulmonary responses to inhaled toxicants, and health hazards from pollutants in workplace and ambient air.During the past decade, Dr. Mauderly's research has focused on understanding how complex mixtures of air contaminants, especially those from combustion sources, cause adverse effects.• Dr. Daniel L. Costa is national program director for air research in the Office of Research and Development of EPA.He is responsible for the overall direction and management of the airquality research program across EPA laboratories and centers, including Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grants.Dr. Costa's research includes the health effects of PM and copollutants, as well as pollutant alteration of cardiopulmonary function through neurophysiologic pathways in various susceptible animal models.• Dr. Ronald E. Wyzga is technical executive and program manager for the air quality health effects program area at the Electric Power Research Institute.His research activities focus on understanding the relationship between health effects and air pollution.Dr. Wyzga specializes in the design, conduct, and interpretation of epidemiological health studies and development of health risk assessment methods.• Dr. Sverre Vedal is a professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the