{"id":9,"date":"2016-05-20T22:16:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T22:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2016\/?p=9"},"modified":"2016-06-02T13:40:25","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T20:40:25","slug":"breathing-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/spring-2016\/breathing-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Breathing Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

During high school, Shelly Miller ’86<\/strong>\u00a0was routinely sent home early.<\/p>\n

In the thickly polluted Southern California of Miller\u2019s youth, \u201chigh-ozone days\u201d were frequent, and schools often dismissed prematurely, limiting sports and other outdoor activities. The San Gabriel Mountains that on a clear day tower above the valley could be nearly imperceptible behind the dull, smoggy haze.<\/p>\n

It made an impression.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in air quality that was terrible,\u201d says Miller. \u201cThe fact that we struggled so much with it made me want to figure out: why?\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s been good to her word. Now a professor of mechanical engineering at University of Colorado Boulder (CU) and an affiliate of the CU-Denver School of Public Health, Miller is researching the sources and health effects of urban air pollution. She also studies how to control it. Her most recent project focuses on understanding climate change\u2019s effects on indoor air quality (IAQ). She\u2019s the principal investigator on a three-year, $1 million Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) project examining how residential weatherization\u2014 structural modification that helps optimize energy consumption and efficiency\u2014impacts air quality in low-income Denver residences.<\/p>\n

Miller is examining the connection between IAQ and the respiratory health of families living in roughly 250 area homes. The broad goal of the project is to provide guidance on energy retrofits that promote healthy indoor environments and, in the process, raise IAQ awareness in urban housing construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to understand the conditions and the indoor air quality in the home, because it can really influence health,\u201d says Miller. \u201cIf we can educate residents about how to live in a healthy home, then they will be healthier as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also economic incentives. By improving overall energy efficiency, such retrofits reduce reliance on expensive utilities, resulting in crucial cost savings for low-income persons living amid scorching summers and bone-chilling winters.<\/p>\n

\"Miller<\/p>\n

To study weatherization\u2019s benefits, Miller and her CU student team employ a special blower door to measure the \u201ctightness\u201d of an indoor environment\u2014that is, how well it is sealed from outside, or ambient, pollutants. Sensors in participating homes (half weatherized, half not) measure particulate matter that poses a human health risk, such as pollution released by climate events like wildfires. Results from a combination of questionnaires, lung function testing, household\u00a0walkthrough and blower door testing help Miller recommend any number of physical retrofits that can improve IAQ and energy efficiency.<\/p>\n

She cites something as simple as a functional kitchen exhaust as being surprisingly absent in many homes. \u201cBuilders don\u2019t understand how important these things are, and residents don\u2019t understand they should be asking for and using them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Microbial contamination in buildings is another common problem Miller knows well. A past project she worked on employed ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) within heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems to discourage microbial growth, reducing heat loss and creating cleaner air at lower cost. A related project studied how UVGI can play a role in reducing infectious disease transmission in hospitals. Behind every project is the overarching question: How can we improve the technology we use to reduce exposure to pollution?<\/p>\n

On a broad scale, Miller acknowledges major steps forward in air quality. \u201cI think slowly but surely we\u2019ve been doing phenomenally at solving air pollution problems,\u201d she says, citing improvements in automobile emissions technologies and the control of pollution from \u201cpoint sources\u201d\u2014the dry cleaner and local baker to the weekend backyard burger griller. \u201cThese little things add up when there Miller\u2019s tips for a cleaner, greener, healthier home are so many people in large urban areas like Los Angeles or Denver.\u201d<\/p>\n

An enormous concern like pollution requires many small solutions, but Miller isn\u2019t one to back down from a challenge. At La Sierra University, Miller burned through every mathematics course available, prompting a professor to recommend she transfer to a school that offered a much more rigorous science, engineering and math curriculum. She was subsequently accepted to Harvey Mudd as a junior mathematics major. While she loved solving differential equations with professors Bob Borrelli and Courtney Coleman in particular, she says she craved a more tangible challenge.<\/p>\n

This, coupled with those smoggy memories, led Miller into the experiential realm of engineering. After Mudd and a short but inspiring stint at aerospace\/automotive firm TRW, she enrolled at UC Berkeley to earn master\u2019s and doctorate degrees in civil and environmental engineering with a concentration in air quality studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate and air quality are common goods,\u201d she says, recalling that undergraduate urge to take on a real-world problem. \u201cI breathe the same air that you breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller regularly shares the latest in air quality research with a broader audience on Twitter (@ShellyMBoulder) and on her website (shellym80304.wordpress.com\/). And, she\u2019s imparting her wisdom to students in CU\u2019s interdisciplinary environmental engineering program. She\u2019s relying on her students\u2019 generation to push the ball forward, because, she says, they are the first to grasp fully the importance of fighting climate change on a global scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther countries are facing climate change just like the United States, and I think we really need to step up and help them control their air pollution with our resources and knowledge,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty much past the tipping point, so we have to figure out how not only to reduce carbon emissions, but take carbon out of the atmosphere if we\u2019re going to resolve this problem, which is very hard technologically.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says global buy-in is crucial, even in small amounts. The simple act of changing over to an energy-efficient light bulb, for example, is an easy step almost anyone can take.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it seems so small, it adds up,\u201d she says. \u201cIf we can develop a world citizenry that has this kind of awareness, I think that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody just has to do one little thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s tips for a cleaner, greener, healthier home<\/h2>\n