To study the effects of indoor pollution among females in a rural block of Haryana

Headnote

Domestic cooking is an important duty of an average Indian housewife. On an average, an Indian woman spends about four to six hours daily for cooking. Mainly four different types of cooking fuels are used in this country: biomass fuel (Wood, Cow-dung cake, agricultural waste, coal etc.); liquefied petroleum gas (LPG); kerosene and a mixture of these. To assess the morbidity among female. Cross sectional type Rural block Beri of Jhajjar district. 500 female. House wife. The study was a cross sectional type and carried out in a rural block Beri of Jhajjar district. The present study shows that maximum female 272 (54.4%) were using mixture of LPG and biomass fuel followed by 178 (35.6%) using biomass fuels and 50 (10%) using stoves. The study revealed that the maximum female were 184 (36.8%) complaining of cough followed by difficulty in breathing 108 (21.6%), 13.6% female had GIT problems. There is a strong correlation between using biomass fuel and respiratory diseases, suggesting that the use of biomass fuel indeed be a culprit behind these high levels of respiratory diseases. The present study has confirmed that biomass fuel exposure is a principal risk factor in the causation of lung diseases among women. Better-ventilated kitchens, smokeless chimneys and use of alternate fuels like LPG should be emphasized as a measure to lessen the risk of respiratory diseases to Indian women.

Keywords: indoor pollution, females, rural block

The occurrence of respiratory, pulmonary diseases and eyes disorder are the most common outcome of the indoor air pollutants. The most commonly reported health effects of indoor air pollutants are acute respiratory infections (ARIs), especially childhood ARIs, that are the single most important cause of mortality in children aged less than 5 years, responsible for between 1.9 million and 2.2 million children deaths annually in this age group globally. 1 Women and children in rural areas of developing countries are exposed often to high levels of pollutants from biomass combustion that is associated with a range of respiratory symptoms. According to a report by Ghosh et al. (2011), the chemicals resulting from combustion of coal may form residues on household surfaces and food (Ghosh et al., 2010).

Biomass and coal smoke contain a large number of indoor air pollutants which have...