Department of Energy and Environment, TERI School of Advanced Studies (earlier TERI University), Delhi, 10, Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070, India.
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh 517 506, India.
Environ Int. 2019 Feb;123:240-255. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.11.059. Epub 2018 Dec 10.
This study investigates the impact of increased levels of indoor air pollution (IAP) caused due to biomass burning in the rural households of Northern India. A comparative assessment of the impact of traditional cookstoves (TCS) and improved cookstoves (ICS) coupled with the characteristics of kitchen was conducted to estimate the PM (PM, PM, PM), CO/CO concentrations in the micro-environments of kitchen and living area of the households. The study incorporated both extensive and intensive real-time indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring during the two cooking sessions of the day. The pollutant concentrations were reported in terms of 24-h as well as 8-h (cooking hours including morning and evening meal) averages. Influence of the three types of kitchen characteristics, i.e., enclosed, semi-enclosed and open was also comprehensively analyzed to measure its impact on the IAQ. In addition to this, the IAQ was further used to evaluate the particle size distribution (PSD), respiratory tract deposition and exposure index to assess its impact on health status of the exposed group including women involved in cooking practices. The results of the study highlighted that deployment of ICS would help in improving the IAQ of the kitchen area by resulting in reducing the concentrations of PM PM PM and CO by 21-62%, 20-80%, 24-87% and 19-93%, respectively. It was also highlighted that the kitchen characteristics significantly influence the accumulation of air pollutants, demonstrated by the results that the IAQ being worst in the case of enclosed kitchen, resulted in the highest exposure index values. Multivariate regression models to predict PM concentration were also developed for three kitchen categories for both TCS and ICS. Thus, the current study concludes that usage of ICS coupled with efficient designing of the kitchen can improve the overall IAQ of the household along with immense health benefits. Overall, the study emphasized the need of more comprehensive studies to fully assess the association of household air pollution (HAP) and health of individual in the rural settings by considering the toxicity of PM.
本研究调查了印度北部农村家庭因生物质燃烧导致室内空气污染（IAP）水平升高的影响。对传统炉灶（TCS）和改良炉灶（ICS）的影响进行了比较评估，并结合厨房的特点，以估计厨房和家庭起居室内的 PM（PM、PM、PM）、CO/CO 浓度。该研究在一天的两次烹饪过程中进行了广泛和深入的实时室内空气质量（IAQ）监测。污染物浓度以 24 小时和 8 小时（包括早晚餐的烹饪时间）平均值报告。还综合分析了三种类型的厨房特点，即封闭、半封闭和开放，以衡量其对室内空气质量的影响。除此之外，还进一步使用室内空气质量来评估粒径分布（PSD）、呼吸道沉积和暴露指数，以评估其对包括参与烹饪实践的妇女在内的暴露组的健康状况的影响。研究结果表明，部署 ICS 将有助于通过减少 PM、PM、PM 和 CO 的浓度 21-62%、20-80%、24-87%和 19-93%来改善厨房区域的室内空气质量。还强调了厨房特点对空气污染物积累的显著影响，结果表明，封闭厨房的室内空气质量最差，导致暴露指数值最高。还为 TCS 和 ICS 的三种厨房类型开发了预测 PM 浓度的多元回归模型。因此，本研究得出的结论是，使用 ICS 并结合厨房的有效设计可以提高家庭的整体室内空气质量，并带来巨大的健康益处。总的来说，该研究强调需要进行更全面的研究，以通过考虑 PM 的毒性，充分评估农村地区家庭空气污染（HAP）与个体健康之间的关联。
