A look out Clarkson's own backyard.

CARES in The News-

Mobile Air Quality Health Effects Lab in Buffalo (courtesy of WIVB TV) — Windows Media 1:04, 400 kbs (broadband) — Windows Media 1:04, 83 kbs (low bandwidth)

Mobile Air Quality Health Effects Lab in Buffalo (courtesy of WKBW TV) — Windows Media 2:19, 400 kbs (broadband) — Windows Media 2:19, 49 kbs (low bandwidth)

The focus of the Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science (CARES) is to provide a better and more complete scientific basis for air quality management in New York State including the understanding of the sources, transport, and chemistry that give rise to indoor and outdoor exposure to air pollutants including noise, their potential health and welfare effects, and ways in which these effects can be reduced or eliminated.

CARES brings together the world-class expertise that is available at Clarkson. This expertise is focused in air sampling and analysis, receptor modeling, atmospheric deposition, and the application of computational fluid dynamics to air pollution problems.

CARES interacts with Syracuse University, Cornell University, the University of Rochester, SUNY ESF, SUNY UMU, SUNY Albany, SUNY Buffalo, The Upstate Freshwater Institute, and the Institute for Ecosystems Studies through the NYSTAR Environmental Quality Systems Center at Syracuse. Although each institution has their own focused research mission, there are important intersections of their strengths that CARES can utilize to provide a base to build an integrated, state-wide research center to focus the expertise on air quality issues. By enhancing already existing capabilities and forging active collaborative alliances, we can provide critical new information on air resources and innovative new approaches for managing indoor and outdoor air quality within a competitive economic environment.

The presence of contaminants in the atmosphere can produce a wide variety of adverse effects including increased mortality and morbidity in the public, deterioration of buildings and monuments, acidification of lakes and rivers, and forest and crop damage. The health effects of atmospheric contaminants cannot be avoided by staying inside since ambient air is transported indoors along with its pollutants while indoor sources can add to the problems.

Although we have substantially improved the ambient air quality over the past 30 years, there are still a number of problems that are attributed to air pollution. Recent studies have found strong correlations between changes in particle concentrations and increased mortality. There has been a sharp rise in childhood asthma which has been linked with air pollution, but its causes are as yet unknown.

Clarkson University already has significant intellectual resources to bring to bear on the problems of air pollution. A new center, the Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science, has been formed to bring together a consortium of investigators to provide the focus and coordination to measure, model, and suggest implementation strategies that will lead to improved atmospheric conditions including the ambient atmosphere, indoor atmospheres in homes and hospitals, and controlled atmospheres in commercial manufacturing operations.

In this process, we will develop new modeling, measurement, and flow management tools that can provide the base for new or expanded commercial ventures as well as providing critical information to State and Federal regulatory authorities that will help to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers.