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EPA and Partners Announce “My Air, My Health Challenge” / Inventors will compete to develop personal air pollution and health sensors

Release Date: 06/06/2012
Contact Information: Latisha Petteway (News Media Only), petteway.latisha@epa.gov, 202-564-3191, 202-564-4355; En español: Lina Younes (Medios noticiosos solamente) 202-564-9924, 202-564-4355

WASHINGTON - To help researchers, communities, and doctors better understand the connection between air quality and a person’s health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Coordinator for Health Information Technology announced a nationwide challenge called My Air, My Health (MAMH). The MAMH challenge offers awards for the invention of personal, portable sensors that measures air pollution and a person’s physiological response to pollution.

“This challenge provides an opportunity to tap into the ingenuity of Americans to build technology to improve health. In the future, these types of personalized devices will enable people to make better informed choices about their own health and their environment,” said Glenn Paulson, EPA Science Advisor.

Men, women, children — we’re all different, and our bodies react in different ways to pollution and other harmful toxins in our environment,” said Linda Birnbaum, NIEHS Director. “We believe pairing health researchers with technology innovators will help us get the tools we need for a more complete picture of what people are breathing and how it might affect their health.”

Responders to the challenge will propose designs for sensors that can be easily worn or carried, and take into account a known or plausible link between airborne pollutants and health measurements (such as, heart rate and breathing) in certain individuals or communities. The proposals should also address how to make the collected health and environmental data available to researchers, public health institutions, and other interested parties.

Four finalists will each receive $15,000 and will be invited to develop their proposals into working prototypes to demonstrate how their systems can be integrated for practical use by health and environmental agencies, and by individual citizens. One of the four finalists will then be awarded $100,000 for the most effective solution for integrating physiological and air quality data that is usable and meaningful to long-term health outcomes. The awards will further scientific research on air quality and public health.

The MAMH Challenge announcement was made at HHS’s Health Data Initiative Forum by EPA Science Advisor Glenn Paulson, Ph.D and NIEHS Director Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D. Interested parties can learn more about the challenge during a webinar on June 19 at 4:00 p.m.

More information on the challenge: http://challenge.gov/HHS/372-my-air-my-health-challenge

More information on the Health Data Initiative Forum: http://www.HDIforum.org