Web Release Date: January 15,
Patterns of Household Concentrations of Multiple Indoor Air Pollutants in China
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National Institute for Environmental Health and Related Product Safety, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Nan Wei Road, Beijing 100050 People's Republic of China, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai 60016, India, Ministry of Public Health, Beijing, People's Republic of China, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20433, and Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Received for review February 19, 2004
Revised manuscript received October 4, 2004
Accepted November 14, 2004
Abstract:
Most previous studies on indoor air pollution from household use of solid fuels have used either indirect proxies for human exposure or measurements of individual pollutants at a single point, as indicators of (exposure to) the mixture of pollutants in solid fuel smoke. A heterogeneous relationship among pollutant-location pairs should be expected because specific fuel-stove technology and combustion and dispersion conditions such as temperature, moisture, and air flow are likely to affect the emissions and dispersion of the various pollutants differently. We report on a study for monitoring multiple pollutants-including respirable particles (RPM), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, fluoride, and arsenic-at four points inside homes that used coal and/or biomass fuels in Guizhou and Shaanxi provinces of China. All pollutants exhibited large variability in emissions and spatial dispersion within and between provinces and were generally poorly correlated. RPM, followed by SO2, was generally higher than common health-based guidelines/standards and provided sufficient resolution for assessing variations within and between households in both provinces. Indoor heating played an important role in the level and spatial patterns of pollution inside homes, possibly to an extent more important than cooking. The findings indicate the need for monitoring of RPM and selected other pollutants in longer-term health studies, with focus on both cooking and living/sleeping areas.
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