The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Tuesday that they will give a $7.5 million grant to the School of Public Health (SPH) to study the effects of air pollution.

The grant will be directed towards the study of air pollutants, specifically "particulate matter." The grant will fund a five-year project titled "Ambient Particles Health Effects: Exposure, Susceptibility, and Mechanisms."

The project was chosen from among 22 submission, which came from across the United States.

Particulate matter is defined as solid particles and liquid droplets in the air, which originate from power plants and diesel vehicles and together are the causes of early deaths, as well as respiratory illness.

Particulate matter can also aggravate the conditions of those suffering from asthma and chronic bronchitis. And more than just a health problem, the particles and droplets can reduce visibility by clouding the air.

John DeVillars, EPA's administrator for the New England Region, said he thinks that the research at the SPH will provide a concrete foundation for an understanding of the particulate matter problem.

"This grant...will contribute to the scientific foundation we need to set and enforce strong public health standards, DeVillars said. "This work will broaden our understanding of particulate matter, which poses a persistent threat to our public and environmental health. The results of this study will move us ahead as we try to find out what kind of particles are most harmful and who is most at risk."

The objective of the research, directed by SPH Professor of Environmental Sciences Petros Koutrakis, is to study the connection between human exposure to particulate matter and subsequent health problems.

"We're very pleased that we are one of the research centers selected," Koutrakis said. "This will enable us to continue our efforts of more than 20 years to understand the effects of air pollution on human health. We are going to use a number of state of the art technologies we have developed to better measure human exposures and to conduct inhalation studies."

The study also aims to understand why some individuals are more sensitive than others to the effects of air pollution. It will also identify which effects of air pollution cause the greatest health risks.