Indoor Air Pollution and Health: Bridging Perspectives from Developing and Developed Countries

Abstract

Much of the global population spends most of their time indoors; however, air pollution measurement, a proxy of exposure, occurs primarily outdoors. This fundamental disconnect between where the people are and where the measurements are made likely leads to misestimation of the true burden of air pollution on human health, which is already substantial, with exposure leading to approximately 6.7 million deaths yearly. In this review, we describe the two disparate but linked fields commonly referred to as indoor air pollution and household air pollution. Both fields focus on the measurement and characterization of exposures and subsequent health effects that occur primarily in the indoor environment. The former tends to focus on issues in the developed world, whereas the latter focuses on issues in low- and middle-income countries reliant on solid fuels, like wood, dung, coal, and crop residues, for basic household energy needs. Both lead to substantial exposures to air pollutants that are damaging to human health. We describe and contrast both contexts and provide potential topics for conversation between the disciplines. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 47 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

A global review of the state of the evidence of household air pollution's contribution to ambient fine particulate matter and their related health impacts

“…The resulting ‘household air pollution’ (HAP) contributes to ~ 36 % of premature deaths and 44 % of DALYs of the total burden from air pollution among the population who uses these primitive fuels to meet basic energy needs ( Murray et al, 2020 ). As of 2016, approximately 3.8 billion people use solid fuels for cooking and other household activities like heating and lighting, despite progress to address global poverty and development in LMICs ( HEI, 2018 ; Pillarisetti et al, 2022 ).…”

“…In households with limited ventilation (as is common in LMICs), exposures to HAP, particularly those of women and young children, have been measured to be many times higher than World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and national air quality standards ( Balakrishnan et al, 2013 ; Pillarisetti et al, 2022 ; Smith, 1993 ; Smith et al, 2014 ). Ambient air pollution (AAP) from a variety of sources, including agricultural waste burning, industries, power generation, vehicular emissions, and road and natural dust also infiltrates households and contributes to in-home exposure ( Leung, 2015 ; Raunemaa et al, 1989 ).…”

“…Likewise, activities involving combustion in households also impact ambient air quality ( Chafe et al, 2014 ; Chowdhury et al, 2019b ). Until recently, the scale and magnitude of HAP’s contribution to AAP was under-recognized and poorly characterized ( Chowdhury et al, 2019a ; Pillarisetti et al, 2022 ; Smith et al, 2014 ). Basics of HAP and AAP, their measurement methods and related health outcomes are discussed in Supplementary Information ( SI Text 1 ) and elsewhere ( Pillarisetti et al, 2022 ).…”

Indoor Air Vocs Biofiltration by Bioactive Coating Packed Bed Bioreactors

“…This group of pollutants includes a wide variety of compounds and is constantly growing, as new sources of pollution are continuously identified (Tsai, 2019). VOCs are found at very low concentrations indoors, usually in the range tens of μg m − 3 , although pollutant emission peaks of up to several mg m − 3 can be recorded when performing common activities such as cooking or cleaning (Pillarisetti et al, 2022). Traditional physical-chemical technologies are neither efficient nor cost-effective for indoor air treatment due to the specific characteristics of indoor pollution, thus biotechnologies have emerged as a potential solution to poor IAQ .…”

Concentration of noxious gases inside and outside residential apartments across different settlements in Port Harcourt metropolis, Nigeria

“…These activities are known to have impacted the eco-environment negatively. The primary sources of indoor air pollution worldwide include the combustion of fuels, tobacco, 3 coal, ventilation systems, emissions from furnishings, and construction materials. 4 Indoor fires can produce black carbon particles, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, and mercury compounds, among other emissions.…”