The southern portion of the city of Durban (population 4 million) in South
Africa is heavily industrialized with oil refineries, paper mills, storage
tanks and other facilities that emit large quantities of pollutants. A
time series study of primary age children is being launched in April 2001 to
study effects of acute pollutant levels on respiratory function. This
project involves several MS students at the University of Natal in Durban.
The school selected for study is within 1 km of two oil refineries and
other large air pollution sources.
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Through a US-sponsored Tertiary Education Linkage Program (TELP) called "Faculty,
Curriculum and Research Development Related to Cleaner Production Technologies
and Advanced and Smart Materials," we are developing strong and
formal linkages between the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) and the
Peninsula Technikon (Bellville, Cape) for the purposes of capacity building in
the academic program, faculty development, promotion of student and faculty
research, and industrial liaison. Specific activities of this program include:
1.
Faculty and student exchange, research training, joint research, publishing.
2.
Short courses by UM faculty delivered in South Africa.
3.
Curriculum development and evaluation.
4.
Conference and workshops.
5.
Laboratory development
The
program has dual emphases:
Smart
materials, covering a wide range of advanced material science
and engineering materials and processes such as piezoelectric actuators and
sensors, and shape memory alloys
Cleaner
production, representing an integrated system of pollution
control (air, water, soil), waste management (generation and disposal).
