Effects of Exposure to Total Particulate Matter of Cashew Nuts Shell in the Respiratory System of Mice with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTION Global warming is one of the most debated environmental issues today, either because of the need for better knowledge on the subject, or for the analysis of its possible influences on life on earth. The increase in the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere coupled with the increase in the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO 2) are issues that need attention from the government and the scientific community, in an attempt to reverse the problems already present, and prevent them from increasing or become irreparable in the near future. One of the causes of global warming is the use of fossil fuels, a non-renewable resource. Faced with this problem, the search for renewable energies has grown, highlighting the use of residual biomass. Most households in China, India and sub-Saharan Africa use biomass fuel for cooking, and in rural areas of Latin America the proportion ranges from 30% to 75% (EZZATI; KAMMEN, 2002). Thus, approximately 3 billion people worldwide are exposed to biomass combustion gases compared to 1.1 billion people who smoke tobacco, suggesting that exposure to biomass smoke may be the most important overall risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (LOPEZ et al., 2006). As one of the largest agricultural producers in the world, Brazil has great capacity to generate energy from the residual biomass of sugarcane, rice, coffee straw and cashew nut shells (CNS). Despite the use of CNS in boiler feed for thermal energy generation in some industries, the adverse health effects of the exhaust gases from the combustion process of CNS are poorly studied, mainly in analyzes of exposure to people with pre-existing respiratory diseases such as emphysema, characterized as a COPD.