Dohoo Carolyn, Read Guernsey Judith, Gibson Mark D, VanLeeuwen John
Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.
1] Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada [2] Centre for Veterinary Epidemiological Research, Department of Health Management, Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2015 Mar-Apr;25(2):167-74. doi: 10.1038/jes.2013.42. Epub 2013 Jul 31.
Women living on rural Kenyan smallholder dairy farms burn wood as biofuel in family cookhouses. Unventilated biofuel combustion produces harmful levels of respirable particles and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in indoor environments. Biogas digesters, which can generate high methane-content biogas from livestock manure composting were recently installed on 31 farms. The study objectives were to compare VOC exposure profiles for women cooking on farms with and without biogas digesters, and to compare seasonal variations in VOC exposures for those women cooking with biogas. Participants (n=31 biogas farms, n=31 referent farms) wore passive thermal desorption VOC sampling tubes and recorded cookhouse fuel use on time activity sheets for 7 days. Women using biogas spent significantly less time (mean=509 min/week) exposed to cookhouse wood smoke compared with the referent group (mean=1122 min/week) (P<0.01). Total VOC exposure did not differ between farm groups (P=0.14), though concentrations of trans-1,3-dichloropropene, bromoform, and 1,4-dichlorobenzene in biogas cookhouses were significantly lower than in referent cookhouses, even after Bonferroni correction. The composition of VOC species was also significantly different, reflecting the different fuel sources. Biogas digester technologies have great potential for reducing exposure to wood smoke VOCs in low-income countries.
生活在肯尼亚农村小农户奶牛场的妇女在家庭厨房中燃烧木材作为生物燃料。通风不良的生物燃料燃烧会在室内环境中产生有害水平的可吸入颗粒物和挥发性有机化合物（VOC）排放。最近在31个农场安装了沼气池，这些沼气池可以通过牲畜粪便堆肥产生高甲烷含量的沼气。研究目的是比较在有和没有沼气池的农场做饭的妇女的VOC暴露情况，并比较使用沼气做饭的妇女的VOC暴露的季节变化。参与者（31个沼气农场，31个对照农场）佩戴被动热解吸VOC采样管，并在时间活动表上记录7天的厨房燃料使用情况。与对照组（平均=1122分钟/周）相比，使用沼气的妇女暴露于厨房木烟的时间明显更少（平均=509分钟/周）（P<0.01）。农场组之间的总VOC暴露没有差异（P=0.14），尽管即使经过Bonferroni校正，沼气厨房中的反式1,3-二氯丙烯、溴仿和1,4-二氯苯的浓度仍明显低于对照厨房。VOC种类的组成也有显著差异，这反映了不同的燃料来源。沼气池技术在低收入国家具有减少木烟VOC暴露的巨大潜力。
