Increased cardiovascular risk in association with chronic airflow obstruction among premenopausal rural women of India who cook exclusively with biomass

March 22, 2012 · 0 comments

AIR QUALITY, ATMOSPHERE & HEALTH, 2012, DOI: 10.1007/s11869-012-0173-8

Increased cardiovascular risk in association with chronic airflow obstruction among premenopausal rural women of India who cook exclusively with biomass

Anindita Dutta, Manas Ranjan Ray, Bidisha Mukherjee and Saswati Chowdhury

We aimed to compare the cardiovascular risk in biomass-using women with or without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A total of 22 biomass-using married women with COPD and 24 matched controls with normal lung function were enrolled for this purpose. Platelet P-selectin (P-sel) expression and platelet–leukocyte aggregation were determined using flow cytometry. Platelet aggregation by collagen was measured by aggregometer.

Soluble P-selectin (sP-sel), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-8, -6, -10 (IL-8, IL-6, IL-10), neutrophil-activating protein-2 (NAP-2), C-reactive protein (CRP), oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) in plasma were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by leukocytes was measured by flow cytometry, and erythrocyte content of superoxide dismutase (SOD) was measured by spectrophotometry. Particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in indoor air was measured by real-time aerosol monitor.

Compared with control, biomass users with COPD had increased expression of platelet P-selectin, elevated levels of sP-sel, oxLDL, TNF-α, IL-8, IL-6, NAP-2, CRP, lowered IL-10 and more circulating platelet-neutrophil (p < 0.0001) and platelet–monocyte (p < 0.0001) aggregates.

ROS generation was increased by 19.5% while SOD was depleted by 32% in women with COPD. Biomass smoke-induced COPD is associated with excess cardiovascular risk via oxidative stress, platelet activation, and inflammation.

KEM unit studies how biomass fuels affect health

March 21, 2012 · 0 comments

KEM unit studies how biomass fuels affect health – SOURCE, Mar 21, 2012-Indian Express

With half a million women and children dying due to indoor air pollution in the country, scientists at KEM Hospital research centre’s Vadu rural health programme and Chest Research Foundation have come together to study how biomass fuels used in rural households affect respiratory health.

Can local cooking stoves be used in reducing the smoke from chullahs is one of the interventions being proposed at the Indoor Air Pollution at Chest Research Foundation workshop. International Network for the continuous Demographic Evaluation of Populations and their Health (INDEPTH) Network and Swiss tropical are other institutions collaborating for this workshop.

INDEPTH is a network of 42 demographic and health surveillance system (HDSS) sites from 19 countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania that collectively monitor 2,200,000 people at household-level. Prof. Don De Savigny, Dr. Daniel Maeusezahl (Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, Switzerland), Dr. Sundeep Salvi (CRF) and Dr. Ajay Ojha spoke at the workshop.

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The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health Project

March 20, 2012 · 0 comments

Clin Infect Dis. (2012) 54 (suppl 2): S93-S101. doi: 10.1093/cid/cir1052

The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health Project: A 21st Century Childhood Pneumonia Etiology Study

Orin S. Levine, et al.

The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) project is a 7-country, standardized, comprehensive evaluation of the etiologic agents causing severe pneumonia in children from developing countries. During previous etiology studies, between one-quarter and one-third of patients failed to yield an obvious etiology; PERCH will employ and evaluate previously unavailable innovative, more sensitive diagnostic techniques.

Innovative and rigorous epidemiologic and analytic methods will be used to establish the causal association between presence of potential pathogens and pneumonia. By strategic selection of study sites that are broadly representative of regions with the greatest burden of childhood pneumonia, PERCH aims to provide data that reflect the epidemiologic situation in developing countries in 2015, using pneumococcal and Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccines.

PERCH will also address differences in host, environmental, and/or geographic factors that might determine pneumonia etiology and, by preserving specimens, will generate a resource for future research and pathogen discovery.

What Impedes Efficient Product Adoption? Evidence from Randomized Variation in Sales Offers for Improved Cookstoves in Uganda

March 20, 2012 · 0 comments

What Impedes Efficient Product Adoption? Evidence from Randomized Variation in Sales Offers for Improved Cookstoves in Uganda, n.d,

DAVID I. LEVINE AND CAROLYN COTTERMAN

Many people do not purchase products that appear beneficial. For example, the price of an efficient cookstove can be less than a few months’ savings on fuel. If liquidity constraints, present bias, and poor information on fuel savings and stove durability are barriers, then a novel sales offer combining a free trial, time payments, and the right to return the stove at any time should increase sales.

In a randomized trial, this sales offer increases sales of an efficient charcoal-burning stove in Kampala, Uganda, from 5% to 45%. We provide additional evidence that both liquidity constraints and imperfect information were important barriers.

Testing the effectiveness of two improved cookstove interventions in the Santiago de Chuco Province of Peru

March 15, 2012 · 0 comments

Testing the effectiveness of two improved cookstove interventions in the Santiago de Chuco Province of Peru, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 420, 15 March 2012, Pages 54-64.

Christopher Fitzgerald, Manuel Aguilar-Villalobos, Adam R. Eppler, Stephen C. Dorner, Steven L. Rathbun, Luke P. Naeher

90% of people residing in rural areas of less-developed countries rely on coal and biomass fuels for heating and cooking, leading to high exposures to the products of incomplete combustion. Three Andean communities within the Santiago de Chuco province of Peru received two different models of improved cookstoves. The impact of these stoves in reducing personal exposures and kitchen concentrations of fine particulate matter and carbon monoxide (CO) was evaluated separately in 64 homes (32 with each stove model) using air monitoring equipment.

 

Biomass fuels and lung cancer

March 15, 2012 · 0 comments

Biomass fuels and lung cancer, Respirology, Volume 17, Issue 1, pages 20–31, January 2012.

WEI-YEN LIM, ADELINE SEOW

It is estimated that about 2.4 billion people around the world, or about 40% of the world’s population, depend on biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, dung, crop residue) to meet their energy needs for cooking and heating. The burden is especially high in Asia. Studies suggest that levels of pollutants including particulate matter <10 µm and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons indoors in homes where biomass fuels are used far exceed levels recommended as safe. While in vitro and in vivo studies in animal models suggest that wood smoke emission extracts are mutagenic and carcinogenic, epidemiologic studies have been inconsistent.

In this review, we discuss possible carcinogenic mechanisms of action of biomass fuel emissions, summarize the biological evidence for carcinogenesis, and review the epidemiologic evidence in humans of biomass fuel emissions as a risk factor for lung cancer. Finally, we highlight some issues relevant for interpreting the epidemiologic evidence for the relationship between biomass fuel exposure and lung cancer: these include methodologic considerations and recognition of possible effect modification by genetic susceptibility, smoking status, age of exposure and histologic type.

Effect of Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass and Solid Fuel Combustion on Prevalence of Self-Reported Asthma

March 12, 2012 · 0 comments

J Asthma. 2012 Mar 7.

Effect of Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass and Solid Fuel Combustion on Prevalence of Self-Reported Asthma among Adult Men and Women in India: Findings from a Nationwide Large-Scale Cross-Sectional Survey.

Agrawal S. South Asia Network for Chronic Disease, Public Health Foundation of India , New Delhi , India.

Objectives. Increasing prevalence of asthma in developing countries has been a significant challenge for public health in recent decades. A number of studies have suggested that ambient air pollution can trigger asthma attacks. Biomass and solid fuels are a major source of indoor air pollution, but in developing countries the health effects of indoor air pollution are poorly understood. In this study we examined the effect of cooking smoke produced by biomass and solid fuel combustion on the reported prevalence of asthma among adult men and women in India.

Methods. The analysis is based on 99,574 women and 56,742 men aged between 20 and 49 years included in India’s third National Family Health Survey conducted in 2005-2006. Effects of exposure to cooking smoke, determined by the type of fuel used for cooking such as biomass and solid fuels versus cleaner fuels, on the reported prevalence of asthma were estimated using multivariate logistic regression. Since the effects of cooking smoke are likely to be confounded with effects of tobacco smoking, age, and other such factors, the analysis was carried out after statistically controlling for such factors.

Results. The results indicate that adult women living in households using biomass and solid fuels have a significantly higher risk of asthma than those living in households using cleaner fuels (OR: 1.26; 95%CI: 1.06-1.49; p = .010), even after controlling for the effects of a number of potentially confounding factors. Interestingly, this effect was not found among men (OR: 0.98; 95%CI: 0.77-1.24; p = .846). However, tobacco smoking was associated with higher asthma prevalence among both women (OR: 1.72; 95%CI: 1.34-2.21; p < .0001) and men (OR: 1.35; 95%CI: 1.49-2.25; p < .0001). Combined effects of biomass and solid fuel use and tobacco smoke on the risk of asthma were greater and more significant in women (OR: 2.16; 95%CI: 1.58-2.94; p < .0001) than they were in men (OR: 1.34; 95%CI: 1.04-1.72; p = .024). Conclusions. The findings have important program and policy implications for countries such as India, where large proportions of the population still rely on polluting biomass fuels for cooking and heating. Decreasing household biomass and solid fuel use and increasing use of improved stove technology may decrease the health effects of indoor air pollution. More epidemiological research with better measures of smoke exposure and clinical measures of asthma is needed to validate the findings.

Indoor air pollution and the lung in low and medium income countries

March 6, 2012 · 0 comments

Eur Respir J. 2012 Feb 23.

Indoor air pollution and the lung in low and medium income countries.

Kurmi OP, Lam KB, Ayres JG. School of Population and Health Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.

Over half the world’s population, most from developing countries, use solid fuel for domestic purposes and are exposed to very high concentrations of harmful air pollutants with potential health effects such as respiratory problems, cardiovascular, infant mortality and ocular problems. The evidence also suggests that, although the total percentage of people using solid fuel is coming down, the absolute number is currently increasing. Exposure to smoke from solid fuel burning increases the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and lung cancer in adults and acute lower respiratory tract infection/pneumonia in children.

Despite heterogeneity among different studies the association between COPD and exposure to smoke produced by burning different types of solid fuel is consistent. However, there is strong evidence that while coal burning is a risk for lung cancer, exposure to other biomass fuel smoke is less so. There is some evidence that reduction of smoke exposure using improve cook stoves reduces the risk of COPD and possibly acute lower respiratory infection in children so approaches to reduce biomass smoke exposure are likely to result in reductions in the global burden of respiratory disease.

Real-Time Assessment of Black Carbon Pollution in Indian Households

March 6, 2012 · 0 comments

Environmental Science & Technology, March 2012

Real-Time Assessment of Black Carbon Pollution in Indian Households Due to Traditional and Improved Biomass Cookstoves

Abhishek Kar, et al.

Use of improved (biomass) cookstoves (ICs) has been widely proposed as a BlackCarbon (BC) mitigation measure with significant climate and health benefits. ICs encompass arange of technologies, including natural draft (ND) stoves, which feature structural modificationsto enhance air flow, and forced draft (FD) stoves, which additionally employ an external fan toforce air into the combustion chamber.

We present here, under Project Surya, the first real-time insitu Black Carbon (BC) concentration measurements from five commercial ICs and a traditional(mud) cookstove for comparison. These experiments reveal four significant findings about thetested stoves.

  • First, FD stoves emerge as the superior IC technology, reducing plume zone BC concentration by a factor of 4 (compared to 1.5 for ND). Indoor cooking-time BC concentrations,which varied from 50 to 1000 μg m−3for the traditional mud cookstove, were reduced to 5−100μg m−3by the top-performing FD stove.
  • Second, BC reductions from IC models in the sametechnology category vary significantly: for example, some ND models occasionally emit more BCthan a traditional cookstove. Within the ND class, only microgasification stoves were effective inreducing BC.
  • Third, BC concentration varies significantly for repeated cooking cycles with same stove (standard deviation up to50% of mean concentration) even in a standardized setup, highlighting inherent uncertainties in cookstove performance.
  • Fourth,use of mixed fuel (reflective of local practices) increases plume zone BC concentration (compared to hardwood) by a factor of 2to 3 across ICs.

 

The Changing Climate of Household Energy: Determinants of Cooking Fuel Choice in Domestic Settings in Ghana

March 1, 2012 · 0 comments

The Changing Climate of Household Energy: Determinants of Cooking Fuel Choice in Domestic Settings in Axim, Ghana, 2011.

Ngozi Manyo-Plange

In Sub-Saharan Africa it is assumed that women’s cooking fuel choices are constrained by their economic circumstances. The purpose of this study is to understand how different factors influence cooking fuel choice in Ghana. A survey was administered to 100 adult female participants in Axim, Ghana.

The study identifies five key factors that contribute to fuel choice, indicating a more complex decision-making strategy than previously thought. It finds that many women are not passive victims of poverty, but that they actively prepare for energy-related hazards by building diverse energy portfolios.

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