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Abstract Due to the combustion of solid fuels, indoor air pollution seems to be a major contributor to disease in India, but few quantitative exposure assessment studies are available. This study quantified daily average concentrations of respirable particulates in 420 rural homes of Andhra Pradesh and recorded time activity data of 1400 individuals to reconstruct 24-hour average exposures. The mean average concentrations ranged from 73 [mu]g/m^sup 3^ to 732 [mu]g/m^sup 3^ in gas versus solid-fuel using households, respectively. Concentrations were significantly correlated with fuel type, kitchen type, and fuel quantity. The mean average exposures ranged from 80 [mu]g/m^sup 3^ to 573 [mu]g/m^sup 3^. Among solid-fuel users, the mean average exposures were the highest for women cooks and were significantly different for men and children. Women in the age group of 15-40 years (most likely to be involved in cooking or helping in cooking) had the highest exposure as also the men in the age group of 65-80 years (most likely to be indoors). Data are being used to develop a model to predict the quantitative categories of population exposure based on housing and fuel characteristics. This would facilitate the development of a regional exposure database for estimation of health risks.
Introduction
Indoor air quality and air pollutants are now recognized as a potential source of health risk to the exposed population throughout the world. Indoor air pollutants differ in terms of their sources of generation as well as in hazard profiles. There is also an increasing recognition that indoor air quality problems are strikingly different across developed and developing nations. The most significant issue that concerns indoor air quality in rural environments of developing countries is that of exposure to emissions from combustion of biomass fuels as also fossil fuels in cooking and heating. Use of open fires for cooking and heating exposes an estimated 2 billion people in the world to enhanced concentrations of particulate matter and gases; up to 10-20 times higher than ambient concentrations (WHO 1999).
Although biomass makes for only 10%-15% of the total human fuel use, since nearly half the world's population uses biomass fuels for cooking and heating, indoor exposures are likely to exceed outdoor exposures on a global scale. According to the data obtained during the 1991...