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Kalpana Balakrishnan,¹ Jyoti Parikh,² Sambandam Sankar,¹ Ramaswamy Padmavathi,¹ Kailasam Srividya,¹ Vidhya Venugopal,¹ Swarna Prasad,¹ and Vijay Laxmi Pandey²

¹Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (Deemed University), Porur, India; ²Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Mumbai, India

Abstract

Indoor air pollution resulting from combustion of biomass fuels in rural households of developing countries is now recognized as a major contributor to the global burden of disease. Accurate estimation of health risks has been hampered by a paucity of quantitative exposure information. In this study we quantified exposures to respirable particulate matter from biomass-fuel combustion in 436 rural homes selected through stratified random sampling from four districts of Tamil Nadu, India. The study households are a subset of a larger sample of 5,028 households from the same districts in which socioeconomic and health information has been collected. Results of measurements for personal exposures to respirable particulate matter during cooking were reported earlier. This has been extended to calculation of 24-hr exposures with the aid of additional measurements during noncooking times and the collection of time-activity records. Concentrations of respirable particulate matter ranged from 500 to 2,000 µg/m³ during cooking in biomass-using households, and average 24-hr exposures ranged from 90 ± 21 µg/m³ for those not involved in cooking to 231 ± 109 µg/m³ for those who cooked. The 24-hr exposures were around 82 ± 39 µg/m³ for those in households using clean fuels (with similar exposures across household subgroups) . Fuel type, type and location of the kitchen, and the time spent near the kitchen while cooking were the most important determinants of exposure across these households among other parameters examined, including stove type, cooking duration, and smoke from neighborhood cooking. These estimates could be used to build a regional exposure database and facilitate health risk assessments. Key words: biomass fuels, developing countries, exposure assessment, indoor air pollution, rural health. Environ Health Perspect 110:1069-1075 (2002) . [Online 10 September 2002]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2002/110p1069-1075balakrishnan/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to K. Balakrishnan, Environmental Health Engineering, Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute, Porur, Chennai-600 116, India. Telephone: 91-44-476-5609. Fax: 91-44-476-7008. E-mail: kalpanasrmc@vsnl.com

We thank T.K. Partha Sarathy, K. Parikh, B.W.C. Satyasekharan, P. Venkatesan, and A.C. Nielson for valuable assistance in planning the study. We thank K. Smith, P. Breysse, P. Lees, and H. Hu for their invaluable support and guidance. Finally, we thank the women who participated in the study.

This work was supported in part through a subcontract to the Sri Ramachandra Medical College from the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research under the UNDP Cap21 project.

Received 10 August 2001 ; accepted 26 April 2002.