Effects of Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass Fuel Smoke on Pulmonary Health in Women of Rural Urban Indian Villages

Abstract

Exposure to biomass fuel (BMF) from traditional cook stoves inflicts an enormous newlineburden of morbidities in women across the developing countries. People use BMF as newlinean energy source for cooking and heating purposes that produces a wide range of air newlinepollutants which directly or indirectly have serious impacts on human health. Even newlinethough several researchers across the world have investigated the adverse health newlineimpacts of using biomass fuel in traditional cooking settings, but huge uncertainties newlinestill exist in defining the actual health impacts due to the exposure to different types newlineof pollutants emitted during the combustion process. The research work carried out newlinein this thesis outlines the effects of exposure to biomass fuel smoke on the newlinepulmonary health of women from rural and urban villages of North India. This study newlineaims to assess the lung function and its association with the indoor air pollutants newlinegenerated using BMF and accordingly the research work in this thesis is organised newlineinto five main chapters. newlineThe findings of the present research work could help in strengthening the existing newlinepolicies and implementing the management strategies regarding switching to newlinealternative cleaner sources of energy for cooking purposes, and reduction of air newlinepollution load in urban and rural villages for decreasing the prevalence of respiratory newlinemorbidities in these areas.