BOARD MEETING DATE: August 1, 2003
AGENDA NO. 3

Approve Workplan for the Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium and Contract for Administering the Consortium.

SYNOPSIS:

At the February 2003 meeting, the Board committed 10 percent of Fiscal Year 2002-03 penalty revenue to fund the Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium. This action is to approve a workplan for the Consortium, end operation of a Board-established advisory committee, and authorize a contract with UCLA to manage the Consortium and implement the workplan.

COMMITTEE:

Not Applicable

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

1. Authorize a workplan for the Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium.
    
2. End operation of the Consortium’s advisory committee.
    
3. Authorize the Chairman to execute a contract with UCLA to manage Consortium operations in an amount not to exceed $45,000 from the Asthma & Brain Cancer Research Fund.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer

Background

At the February 2003 Board meeting, the Board approved the establishment of the Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium and directed 10% of FY 2002-03 penalty revenue—estimated to be approximately $723,000 as of June 30, 2003—to fund such consortium for research projects relating to asthma and outdoor air quality. The Board also appointed an Advisory Board to the Consortium.

Recently staff has become concerned with the applicability of conflict-of-interest rules to the advisory committee’s activities. Consequently, staff is recommending that the Board end operation of the advisory committee and negotiate directly with the Consortium, which will present projects developed under the workplan for Board consideration at the October Board meeting.

Proposal

The goal of the Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium is to conduct research to better understand the relation between air pollution and asthma and to ensure protection of public health. The Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium proposed workplan constitutes a process to determine the research projects to undertake. The process is modeled after that used at the Southern California Particle Center and Supersite. The Particle Supersite has brought together outstanding scientists from the leading universities in Southern California to identify and prioritize research needed to better understand and address the overall health effects on PM. In a similar fashion, the Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium will bring together leading asthma and air-quality investigators from universities within the SCAQMD boundaries, including UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center and Loma Linda University, in an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to accelerate the body of knowledge about asthma and air pollution.

At the February Board meeting, the Board also established an advisory committee to assist the Consortium with the development of a workplan. Staff has recently become concerned that the activities of the committee—whose members included researchers affiliated with the Consortium—may not be able to operate because of conflict-of-interest rules. Therefore, staff proposes to negotiate directly with the Consortium, which will submit research proposals to staff no later than September 1, 2003. The Consortium may rely on outside advisors to develop and review the proposals. Staff will evaluate the proposals and make funding recommendations at the October Board meeting. Staff may consult with independent advisors in evaluating the proposals.

The process for selecting research projects is briefly described as follows:

• Individual investigators from various universities submit research projects to the Consortium.
• Each proposal is sent to leading researchers for outside technical review.
• The Consortium, reviews how each project fits into the overall goals of the Consortium.
• The Consortium then will recommend funding of selected projects.
• Staff will independently evaluate the projects and make recommendations to the Board.

Staff proposes that the workplan, which is detailed in Attachment 1, be approved.

Staff also recommends that the Board approve a contract not to exceed $45,000 with UCLA, with Professor John Froines as principal investigator, to develop and implement the Consortium’s workplan. Funding is available from the 10 percent of FY 2002-03 penalty fees directed by the Governing Board to the Asthma & Brain Cancer Research Fund for the Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium.

Attachment

Asthma and Outdoor Air Quality Consortium Workplan

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