Domestic Pollution and Respiratory Illness in a Himalayan Village

Abstract

Summer and winter surveys of a village in Ladakh have been used to study respiratory illness and domestic pollution from fires in an arid high altitude region of northern India. The prevalence of chronic cough with chronic phlegm rose steeply with age, and was greater among women than men. The percentage of villagers with a forced expiratory volume in one second/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) ratio of less than 65% also rose with age, to include 24% of men and 32% of women over 50 years in the summer survey. Lung function was significantly worse in those reporting chronic cough, independently of age and sex (p less than 0.001). Carbon monoxide (CO) measurements were used to assess domestic pollution from fires. Amongst the small minority of smokers (all men) CO in exhaled air was higher than in non-smoking men. In non-smoking men and the women, levels of exhaled CO were very significantly higher in winter than in summer, as were the levels of CO measured in the houses. There was a fall in FEV1 (but not FVC) between summer and winter (p less than 0.0001), and an association was found between individual change from summer to winter in exhaled air CO and the individual change in FEV1 (p less than 0.01). A significant negative association was found between the winter value of CO in exhaled air and FEV1/FVC ratio in women (p less than 0.05), although a similar association in men was non-significant. No significant associations were found between winter pollution levels and the presence of chronic symptoms.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Birth weight and exposure to kitchen wood smoke during pregnancy in rural Guatemala.

“…Given the high ambient (room) levels, these findings for COHb are consistent with an ethnographic study in this part of western Guatemala that found that women spend between 4.6-6.8 hr per day in the house while the fire is lit (32). The current World Health Organization air quality guidelines recommend exposure to CO of no more than 10 ppm for an 8-hr period and 30 ppm for 1 hr (18), levels that are frequently reached or exceeded in homes burning biomass on open fires.…”

“…Another key issue is whether wood fuel users really did have higher exposure to pollutants, particularly to CO, and whether the level of exposure they experienced was sufficient to impair fetal growth. Although exposure was not measured directly in the current study, there is fairly substantial evidence from Guatemala (16,(29)(30)(31)(32) and elsewhere (15,17,24,33,34) to answer these questions. Studies from many parts of the world have shown that women are exposed to very high levels of indoor air pollution from biofuels: Typical 24-hr values for particulate matter (PM) 10 are around 1,000 µg/m 3 or higher (15,21,24,33).…”

Chronoecological health watch of arterial stiffness and neuro-cardio-pulmonary function in elderly community at high altitude (3524 m), compared with Japanese town

“…First, improved lung mechanics may be an important adaptation to indoor biomass and outdoor dust exposure in high-altitude populations [1]. Norboo et al [2] reported that the prevalence of chronic cough was greater among women than among men. The percentage of villagers over 50 years of age with a forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity ratio (FEV 1.0 /FVC) of less than 65% was 24% in men and 32% in women.…”

Effect of aging on blood pressure in Leh, Ladakh, a high-altitude (3524 m) community, by comparison with a Japanese town

“…Sixth, it has been reported that in Ladakh, silicosis is widespread among older people exposed to environmental dust. This may result in advanced fibrotic lung disease associated with disability [7][8][9][10]. Saiyed et al [9] reported that environmental dust was associated with the severity of dust storms and the use of chimneys in the kitchens.…”