TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating indoor PM2.5 and CO concentrations in households in southern Nepal
T2 - The Nepal cookstove intervention trials
AU - Chen, Chen
AU - Zeger, Scott
AU - Breysse, Patrick
AU - Katz, Joanne
AU - Checkley, William
AU - Curriero, Frank C.
AU - Tielsch, James M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was performed with financial support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, United States National Institutes of Health (ES015558), the Thrasher Research Fund (02830–4), and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves of the United Nations Foundation (UNF-12-380).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Public Library of Science. All rights reserved. This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
PY - 2016/7
Y1 - 2016/7
N2 - High concentrations of household air pollution (HAP) due to biomass fuel usage with unvented, insufficient combustion devices are thought to be an important health risk factor in South Asia population. To better characterize the indoor concentrations of particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO), and to understand their impact on health in rural southern Nepal, this study analyzed daily monitoring data collected with DataRAM pDR-1000 and LASCAR CO data logger in 2980 households using traditional biomass cookstove indoor through the Nepal Cookstove Intervention Trial-Phase I between March 2010 and October 2011. Daily average PM2.5 and CO concentrations collected in area near stove were 1,376 (95% CI, 1,331-1,423) μg/m3 and 10.9 (10.5-11.3) parts per million (ppm) among households with traditional cookstoves. The 95th percentile, hours above 100μg/m3 for PM2.5 or 6ppm for CO, and hours above 1000μg/m3 for PM2.5 or 9ppm for CO were also reported. An algorithm was developed to differentiate stove-influenced (SI) periods from non-stove-influenced (non-SI) periods in monitoring data. Average stove-influenced concentrations were 3,469 (3,350-3,588) μg/m3 for PM2.5 and 21.8 (21.1-22.6) ppm for CO. Dry season significantly increased PM2.5 concentration in all metrics; wood was the cleanest fuel for PM2.5 and CO, while adding dung into the fuel increased concentrations of both pollutants. For studies in rural southern Nepal, CO concentration is not a viable surrogate for PM2.5 concentrations based on the low correlation between these measures. In sum, this study filled a gap in knowledge on HAP in rural Nepal using traditional cookstoves and revealed very high concentrations in these households.
AB - High concentrations of household air pollution (HAP) due to biomass fuel usage with unvented, insufficient combustion devices are thought to be an important health risk factor in South Asia population. To better characterize the indoor concentrations of particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO), and to understand their impact on health in rural southern Nepal, this study analyzed daily monitoring data collected with DataRAM pDR-1000 and LASCAR CO data logger in 2980 households using traditional biomass cookstove indoor through the Nepal Cookstove Intervention Trial-Phase I between March 2010 and October 2011. Daily average PM2.5 and CO concentrations collected in area near stove were 1,376 (95% CI, 1,331-1,423) μg/m3 and 10.9 (10.5-11.3) parts per million (ppm) among households with traditional cookstoves. The 95th percentile, hours above 100μg/m3 for PM2.5 or 6ppm for CO, and hours above 1000μg/m3 for PM2.5 or 9ppm for CO were also reported. An algorithm was developed to differentiate stove-influenced (SI) periods from non-stove-influenced (non-SI) periods in monitoring data. Average stove-influenced concentrations were 3,469 (3,350-3,588) μg/m3 for PM2.5 and 21.8 (21.1-22.6) ppm for CO. Dry season significantly increased PM2.5 concentration in all metrics; wood was the cleanest fuel for PM2.5 and CO, while adding dung into the fuel increased concentrations of both pollutants. For studies in rural southern Nepal, CO concentration is not a viable surrogate for PM2.5 concentrations based on the low correlation between these measures. In sum, this study filled a gap in knowledge on HAP in rural Nepal using traditional cookstoves and revealed very high concentrations in these households.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0157984
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0157984
M3 - Article
C2 - 27389398
AN - SCOPUS:84978886194
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 11
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
IS - 7
M1 - e0157984
ER -