E3 Journal of Environmental Research and Management Vol.3(1). pp. 001-008, January, 2012
A study of risk factors associated with indoor air pollution in the low income households in Aligarh city, India
Abha Lakshmi Singh and Saleha Jamal. Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, Uttar Pradesh (INDIA)
This paper seeks to investigate the risk factors associated with indoor air pollution in low income households. Cooking with traditional fuels leads to high levels of indoor air pollution, exposure of which increases the risk of various health problems. This study is based on primary sources of data collected with the help of questionnaire interviews from 533 low income households (earning Rs.5, 000 and less per month). Since women are responsible for cooking they were selected as respondents. This study investigates the major socio-economic factors including housing and cooking conditions, identification of risk factors and occurrence of associated diseases.
The results show that most of the low income households were using traditional fuels and stoves, cooking in multipurpose room and veranda, in poorly ventilated cooking places and taking long hours for cooking. Thus, they were exposed to all the associated risk factors of indoor air pollution. They reported of the occurrence of associated diseases, like acute upper and lower respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, perinatal mortality, pulmonary tuberculosis, low birth weight, eye irritation and cataract etc. The study points to the need of creating awareness amongst the low income households.
TOWARDS AN ‘ENERGY PLUS’ APPROACH FOR THE POOR: A review of good practices and lessons learned from Asia and the Pacific, 2012. UNDP.
The 17 reviewed energy access programmes and projects have brought improvements to the quality of lives of communities in terms of energy cost savings, health, education, communication, access to information and women’s empowerment, thus contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In addition, initiatives that promote lowemission technologies contribute to the global climate change agenda.
The impact of energy access projects on livelihoods and incomes is less visible. This is because most energy access projects adopt a ‘minimalist’ approach, focusing on the basic energy needs of the poor (lighting homes, cooking, heating).
While the importance of these cannot be overemphasized, such a strategy is not sufficient for effective poverty reduction. On the other hand, projects that complement energy service provision with measures that raise incomes and improve livelihoods – e.g. improving access to information, market linkages, business development services and access to capital – show tremendous promise in poverty reduction and economic and human development. Such ‘Energy Plus’ initiatives, however, are few in number and are yet to be scaled up in terms of the number of people reached.
The report highlights that breaking through the energy-poverty cycle is best achieved by combining the delivery of energy services with measures that generate cash incomes. This ‘Energy Plus’ approach has the greatest potential for reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The report identifies good practices and lessons learned for making a transition to this approach, in areas of energy service
delivery, financing and mainstreaming.
Gender equity in access to and benefits from modern energy and improved energy technologies : world development report background paper, 2012.
Clancy, Joy and Winther, Tanja and Matinga, Magi and Oparaocha, Sheila. University of Twente.
There are a number of gaps in the literature.
- Stove project evaluations in general miss gender analyses. This risks not identifying why stoves –which have obvious benefits of timesaving and reduced indoor air pollution– are either not taken up or are abandoned shortly after a project finishes.
- There appears to be a tendency to neglect men’s exposure to IAP due to assuming their absence from women’s space in the kitchen. It is a cause for concern since impacts on men’s health may go unrecognised and untreated.
- There are also no empirical there are no empirical studies on the impacts of modern energy or lack of it on the HIV/AIDS-infected population; and none specifically on the connections between gender, energy and major diseases such as malaria.
- There are very little empirical data comparable with that for IAP about the impacts on women’s health of daily carrying of heavy loads of biomass, which exceed ILO recommended safety standards, throughout their adult life. We consider that there is a need for epidemiological studies at a comparable level to that for IAP.
- Somewhat surprisingly, there is very little in the literature that evaluates the role of modern energy in income generation from a gender perspective. The focus has tended to be on women as entrepreneurs and the role of electricity in enterprise stimulation. The evaluation should be broadened to include men and other modern energy sources.
How Will Energy Demand Develop in the Developing World? 2012.
Catherine Wolfram, Orie Shelef, and Paul Gertler. University of California at Berkeley.
Most of the medium‐run growth in energy demand is forecast to come from the developing world, which consumed more total units of energy than the developed world in 2007. We argue that the main driver of the growth is likely to be increased incomes among the poor and near‐poor. We document that as households come out of poverty and join the middle class, they acquire appliances, such as refrigerators, and vehicles for the first time. These new goods require energy to use and energy to manufacture. The current forecasts for energy demand in the developing world may be understated because they do not accurately capture the dramatic increase in demand associated with poverty reduction.
Woodfuel for urban centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2011.
Jolien Schure, Verina Ingram, Jean-Noël Marien, Robert Nasi and Emilien Dubiez. CIFOR
Key points:
- Policymakers should recognise the size and value of the woodfuel sector and its importance to many people.
- Harvesters and producers need better access to trees and land to promote better management and reduce conflicts.
- The tax system for woodfuel should be revised to be transparent and pragmatic.
- Woodfuel from plantation forests and agroforestry should be favoured over woodfuel from valuable or threatened tree species.
- More attention should be paid to energy-efficient charcoal kilns and cooking stoves, as well as activities to promote their use.
- Management options that combine agroforestry, plantations and improving energy efficiency need collaboration from different sectors: energy, forest, land-use planning and agriculture.
World Journal of Environmental Pollution 1 (1): 05-07, 2011
Indoor Air Pollution: A Household Study in the Village Faridpur and Ranchi Colony, Durgapur, Burdwan District, West Bengal
N.K. Mondal, S.K. Saha, J.K. Datta and A. Banerjee/ Department of Environmental Science, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, West Bengal, India
Respiratory diseases are of public health concern worldwide. A field study was undertaken to characterize the level of pollutant released from solid bio-fuel burning from the village of rural households and urban households in the area of Durgapur. Results of this study suggested an association between respiratory disease and exposure to domestic biomass fuel smoke, but more extensive studies are needed to confirm the association between solid bio-fuel use and respiratory disease.
Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2011 Dec 8.
Activation of protein kinase B (PKB/Akt) and risk of lung cancer among rural women in India who cook with biomass fuel.
Roychoudhury S, Mondal NK, Mukherjee S, Dutta A, Siddique S, Ray MR.
The impact of indoor air pollution (IAP) from biomass fuel burning on the risk of carcinogenesis in the airways has been investigated in 187 pre-menopausal women (median age 34years) from eastern India who cooked exclusively with biomass and 155 age-matched control women from same locality who cooked with cleaner fuel liquefied petroleum gas. Compared with control, Papanicolau-stained sputum samples showed 3-times higher prevalence of metaplasia and 7-times higher prevalence of dysplasia in airway epithelial cell (AEC) of biomass users. Immunocytochemistry showed up-regulation of phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt(ser473) and p-Akt(thr308)) proteins in AEC of biomass users, especially in metaplastic and dysplastic cells.
Compared with LPG users, biomass-using women showed marked rise in reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and depletion of antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase (SOD) indicating oxidative stress. There were 2-5 times more particulate pollutants (PM(10) and PM(2.5)), 72% more nitrogen dioxide and 4-times more particulate-laden benzo(a)pyrene, but no change in sulfur dioxide in indoor air of biomass-using households, and high performance liquid chromatography estimated 6-fold rise in the concentration of benzene metabolite trans,trans-muconic acid (t,t-MA) in urine of biomass users.
Metaplasia and dysplasia, p-Akt expression and ROS generation were positively associated with PM and t,t-MA levels. It appears that cumulative exposure to biomass smoke increases the risk of lung carcinogenesis via oxidative stress-mediated activation of Akt signal transduction pathway.
Indoor Air. 2011 Dec;21(6):479-88.
Patterns and predictors of personal exposure to indoor air pollution from biomass combustion among women and children in rural China.
Baumgartner J, Schauer JJ, Ezzati M, Lu L, Cheng C, Patz J, Bautista LE.
Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. jbaumgartner@umn.edu
Indoor air pollution (IAP) from domestic biomass combustion is an important health risk factor, yet direct measurements of personal IAP exposure are scarce. We measured 24-h integrated gravimetric exposure to particles < 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (particulate matter, PM₂.₅) in 280 adult women and 240 children in rural Yunnan, China. We also measured indoor PM₂.₅ concentrations in a random sample of 44 kitchens. The geometric mean winter PM₂.₅ exposure among adult women was twice that of summer exposure [117 μg/m³ (95% CI: 107, 128) vs. 55 μg/m³ (95% CI: 49, 62)].
Children's geometric mean exposure in summer was 53 μg/m³ (95% CI: 46, 61). Indoor PM₂.₅ concentrations were moderately correlated with women's personal exposure (r=0.58), but not for children. Ventilation during cooking, cookstove maintenance, and kitchen structure were significant predictors of personal PM₂.₅ exposure among women primarily cooking with biomass. These findings can be used to develop exposure assessment models for future epidemiologic research and inform interventions and policies aimed at reducing IAP exposure.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Our results suggest that reducing overall PM pollution exposure in this population may be best achieved by reducing winter exposure. Behavioral interventions such as increasing ventilation during cooking or encouraging stove cleaning and maintenance may help achieve these reductions.
Clinical reviews in allergy and immunology, Jan 2012.
Respiratory health effects of air pollution: Update on biomass smoke and traffic pollution
Robert J. Laumbach, MD, MPH, and Howard M. Kipen, MD, MPH New Brunswick and Piscataway, NJ
Mounting evidence suggests that air pollution contributes to thelarge global burden of respiratory and allergic diseases,including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,pneumonia, and possibly tuberculosis. Although associationsbetween air pollution and respiratory disease are complex,recent epidemiologic studies have led to an increasedrecognition of the emerging importance of traffic-related airpollution in both developed and less-developed countries, as wellas the continued importance of emissions from domestic firesburning biomass fuels, primarily in the less-developed world.Emissions from these sources lead to personal exposures tocomplex mixtures of air pollutants that change rapidly in spaceand time because of varying emission rates, distances fromsource, ventilation rates, and other factors.
Although the high degree of variability in personal exposure to pollutants fromthese sources remains a challenge, newer methods formeasuring and modeling these exposures are beginning tounravel complex associations with asthma and other respiratorytract diseases. These studies indicate that air pollution fromthese sources is a major preventable cause of increasedincidence and exacerbation of respiratory disease. Physicianscan help to reduce the risk of adverse respiratory effects ofexposure to biomass and traffic air pollutants by promotingawareness and supporting individual and community-levelinterventions.
Issue 37 January 6, 2012 | Focus on WASH and IAP Technologies
This issue of the WASHplus Weekly contains recent studies and manuals that review water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and indoor air pollution (IAP) prevention technologies. For WASH, these include a useful WASHTech review of technologies used in Africa, GIZ technology reviews of constructed wetlands and biogas, a new PATH ceramic filter, among others.
For IAP, PCIA Bulletins provide overviews of solar cookers and biogas, studies from Malawi and Nepal, and other resources. Please contact WASHplus if you have additional information on this topic or to suggest topics for future issues of the Weekly.
