Air purifiers to go in homes of pregnant women for UB study

A new University at Buffalo study aims to find out.

Partnered with the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network, UB researchers will soon be placing hundreds of air purifiers in the homes of pregnant women to study how air pollution can impact their health as well as their children's health.

The work is possible through a new $500,000 grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

“We’re really, really excited about this,” said professor Lina Mu, who leads the project and also serves as director of UB’s Office of Global Health Initiatives. “This is finally giving us a chance to translate what we’ve learned into action.”

Mu has long studied the impacts of air pollution on vulnerable populations, including pregnant women. Poor air quality can increase risks of lower birth weights, abnormal lung development, higher rates of infant mortality, increased preterm births and various other health impacts.

In Buffalo, car and truck traffic has caused poor air quality in neighborhoods including Hamlin Park, Masten Park and Kingsley around the intersection of the Kensington and Scajaquada expressways. The Bailey-Lovejoy and Broadway-Fillmore neighborhoods also were found to be burdened with poor air quality, as were some areas of the Grant Ferry neighborhood on the West Side, according to a DEC study published in August 2024.

“Air quality is just as important as lead or water issues,” said LuAnne Brown, president and CEO of the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network. “It can have an impact on healthy pregnancies, so some homes need to have something to help clean up the air.”

The UB study will include about 800 pregnancies around Buffalo, particularly focusing on Black and Hispanic mothers in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network will help connect the UB researchers with the expecting parents in the city.

Of those studied, 400 will receive air purifiers for their homes.

The air purifiers are inexpensive to make, which was an important aspect of the study, Mu said.

Researchers will recruit local high school students to straph together box fans with air filters. The resulting air purifiers are lower cost than manufactured types typically found on the market, Mu said.

"I've used other air purifiers for other studies in the past, but this is a much lower cost method that produces similar results," Mu said.

Mu, with the help of Meng Wang, an associate professor at UB, will then place the air purifiers in the 400 homes during the first trimester of the parents' pregnancy.

The air purifiers will come equipped with a "smart plug," Mu said, designed to only turn it on when air quality is poor in the area.

The parents will then be monitored throughout the rest of their pregnancies. Mu and Wang will look for any reductions in health impacts known to be associated with poor air quality in those parents who receive the air purifiers, Mu said.

The project is expected to take about three years to complete, Mu said.