A critical comparative study of indoor air pollution from household cooking fuels and its effect on health

Abstract

This paper throws light on household cooking related exposures and level of indoor air pollutants (particulate matter and gaseous pollutants CO, CO2, SO2, NO, NO2) in different exposure area from the different types of cooking fuels used. Still the prevalence of biomass fuels exists in Indian households, combustion of which releases higher levels of solid and gaseous pollutants during the cooking hours. The indoor air pollutants (SPM, CO, CO2, SO2, NO, NO2) were measured with handy samplers with different types of cooking fuels (biomass and LPG). For this purpose 50 randomly selected sampled of the indoor air quality were monitored. The results suggests that average concentration of PM10 (394.07 μg/m3) and gaseous pollutants (CO-3.15 ppm, CO2-492.63 ppm, SO2-0.56 ppm, NO-0.58 ppm, NO2-0.52 ppm) were highest during cooking hours with biofuels cooking places. Thus, not only the women who are involved in cooking suffer from the various ill effects, but also other family members who are inside the house during cooking hours also face exposures. The recorded SPM (114.73 μg/m3 for PM10) and gaseous pollutants (CO-1.34 ppm, CO2-379.83 ppm, SO2-0.52 ppm, NO-0.54 ppm, NO2-0.52 ppm) in LPG using households were lower as compared to biomass fuel using households. Due to the LPG efficiency the time involved in cooking is also low leading to less exposure to the pollutants released.