Abstract:
Indoor air pollution due to burning of biomass fuel in developing countries is a well-established health hazard. In rural Punjab, biomass fuel is used as a primary source for cooking and heating. Biomass burning contains hundreds of compounds that have serious impact on women’s health. The study conducted at Department of Rural Sociology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan during the year 2019 to estimated the health effects of exposure to smoke from burning of agricultural waste, dung cakes and wood used in three districts of Punjab. Data included a survey of 480 women and interactions of fuel, stove and kitchen use were conducted to evaluate the health effects. These data were analyzed using ordinal and multivariate logistic regression models and presented in the form of mediation, moderation and interaction effects. The results show the odds of having more frequent headaches increased (OR =3.62, p=.001) when dung cake was used in conjunction with blocked kitchen. Similarly, the odds of having more frequent chest pain increased (OR =8.05, p=.026) when wood was used in a mid-brick stove. The interaction between dung cake and time spent in the kitchen was significant. It resulted in higher odds of having more frequent cardiac disease by a factor of 5, when dung cake was used for 7-9 hours in the kitchen. It was investigated that use of inferior biomass fuels is significantly positively associated with chest pain, coughing, asthma, breathing problems, headache and eye allergy. The study revealed that in rural areas, biomass fuels often burnt inefficiently in open fires, with high emission factors, leading to extremely high levels of indoor and local air pollution, many times higher than the limits specified by international standards of ambient air quality. Rural women can get rid of this issue with government attention, which was in reality observed not upto the mark.
Page(s):
221-227
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Journal of Agricultural Research, Volume: 57, Issue: 3, Year: 2019
Keywords:
Pakistan
,
Smoke
,
Cooking
,
Biomass
,
womens health
,
fuel