Difference between revisions of "Indoor Air Pollution (IAP)"
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These women self spend daily three to seven hours near the fire with their kids. At that early age of the children their immature lungs and immune systems make them particularly vulnerable. | These women self spend daily three to seven hours near the fire with their kids. At that early age of the children their immature lungs and immune systems make them particularly vulnerable. | ||
| − | Fuels like wood, dung, crop waste, coal and charcoal typically burn in the house as open fires or in stoves with incomplete combustion. Particles with diameters less than 10 micron (PM10) deeply enter into the lungs. Such particles include carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides, formaldehyde, and polycyclic organic matter, including carcinogens accordingly IAP can have a cruel impact on health.<ref name="http://www.lboro.ac.uk/well/resources/fact-sheets/fact-sheets-htm/iap.htm | + | Fuels like wood, dung, crop waste, coal and charcoal typically burn in the house as open fires or in stoves with incomplete combustion. Particles with diameters less than 10 micron (PM10) deeply enter into the lungs. Such particles include carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides, formaldehyde, and polycyclic organic matter, including carcinogens accordingly IAP can have a cruel impact on health.<ref name="Adam Biran and Caroline Hunt, WELL factsheet, Indoor air pollution, cooking stoves and health, March 2003">http://www.lboro.ac.uk/well/resources/fact-sheets/fact-sheets-htm/iap.htm</ref><ref name="WHO, Fact sheet N°292, June 2005">http://www.cetesb.sp.gov.br/userfiles/file/laboratorios/fiea/poluicao_do_ar_ingles.pdf</ref> |
Revision as of 09:25, 5 June 2012
Introduction
Indoor air pollution (IAP) in developing countries is a major environmental and public health challenge. According to the World Health Organization as many as 1.6 million people die each year as a result of it. This can be compared with one death every 20 seconds.
The Cause
The overwhelming cause of this pollution is inefficient und poorly ventilated cooking and heating with solid-fuels. More than half the world’s population are still cooking with wood, dung, coal or agricultural residues on simple stoves or open fires. Burning these fuels results in poor combustion efficiency and high levels of IAP. Respirable particulates, small particles of smoke which get into the lungs, are considered to be the most dangerous pollutant, and carbon monoxide is another known hazard.
Effects
Most of the victims are women and children, they are exposed to the indoor smoke and the large associated health risks the most.
Indoor smoke is the fourth most risk to death and disease in the world's poorest countries: Only malnutrition and underweight, unsafe sex and the lack of clean water cause more victims then cooking indoor on open fires.[1]
Indoor smoke hits women and small children the hardest, they are exposed to very high levels of IAP and inhale significant amounts of seriously health-damaging pollutants on a daily basis. Often they are exposed to levels of smoke more than 100 times above accepted safety levels. According to the World Energy Assessment, the smoke produced from indoor fires is the equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Especially newborns and infants are often spending many hours breathing polluted air during their first year of life because they are carried on their mother‘s back while she is cooking. Over 10 million children aged under five years die every year – 99% of them in developing countries.[2]
These women self spend daily three to seven hours near the fire with their kids. At that early age of the children their immature lungs and immune systems make them particularly vulnerable.
Fuels like wood, dung, crop waste, coal and charcoal typically burn in the house as open fires or in stoves with incomplete combustion. Particles with diameters less than 10 micron (PM10) deeply enter into the lungs. Such particles include carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides, formaldehyde, and polycyclic organic matter, including carcinogens accordingly IAP can have a cruel impact on health.[3][4]
Reducing Indoor Air Pollution
The most effective way to reduce smoke in the home is to switch to cleaner fuels (, kerosene or biogas). It’s also possible to improve the air quality and promote energy efficiency and environmental sustainability by promoting improved cooking stoves. However the huge majority of people in developing countries who are still cooking on open fires are often too poor to change to improved stoves and cleaner fuels or have no access to modern combustibles. Where the use of biomass, wood or charcoal remains predominant, and the indoor environment remains subject to high levels of smoke, other alternatives have to be found to improve air quality and related health issues. Also improved smoke hoods are an alternative to alleviate the dangers related to smoke from open fires.
Further Reading
Indoor air pollution in developing countries: a major environmental and public health challenge
