Air pollution is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. In developing countries, air pollution tends to be highest indoors, where biomass fuels, such as wood, animal dung, crop residues, and rasses, are burned by many households for cooking and space heating (Smith KR 1996). Here, we analyse the effect of Domestic Cooking Fuel on the health of Non-Smoking women of Uttar Pradesh and compare the pulmonary functions in healthy non- smoking women who used either biomass or liquified petroleum gas (LPG) as their sole cooking fuel using data on 275 healthy non-smoking women included 159 cooked solely with biomass and 116 cooked with LPG. A standardised respiratory symptoms questionnaire was administered to all the subjects and spirometry was carried out. The effects of passive smoking, ventilation, overcrowding and cooking index were also taken into account.
Passive smoking showed no significant difference between the two groups. No statistically significant differences was found in lung functions (FVC, FEV1, FER) in the two groups except for the PEFR, which was significantly lower (P<0.01) in women using biomass. No correlation was observed between different variables and pulmonary functions. The step-wise multivariate linear regression analysis showed no correlation between cooking fuel and the pulmonary functions.
The absence of the expected adverse effects of biomass on pulmonary functions was possibly due to better ventilation in the kitchens of subjects in the biomass group compared to previous studies. The results strongly suggest that smoke exposure from the use of biomass fuels for cooking substantially increases the risk of respiratory and lungs problems.
Non- smoking Women, Health, Respiratory symptoms, Biomass, Liquefied petroleum gas
