Indoor air pollution in a Mexican indigenous community: Evaluation of risk reduction program using biomarkers of exposure and effect

Household air pollution: a call for studies into biomarkers of exposure and predictors of respiratory disease

“…In the context of clean stove interventions in Mexico, 1-OHP levels fell from 6.7 to 4.8 mol/mol creatinine when associated with a fall in mean COHb from 4.9 to 1.0% (48). Similar results were obtained at a separate site, despite a threefold decrease in CO exposure, suggesting that overall exposures remained high.…”

“…Blood carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) can also be measured by spectrophotometry. In complex HAP reduction programs, COHb among 20 subjects fell from a preintervention range of 1.1 to 13.9% to a postintervention range of 0.7 to 1.3% (48). Transcutaneous measurement of COHb offers the potential for ease of use without the need for access to peripheral blood and correlates with blood samples, although field testing has shown considerable random error at low levels: the required accuracy is debatable even when used in clinical contexts (24).…”

A mathematical modeling approach to risk assessment for normal and anemic women chronically exposed to carbon monoxide from biomass-fueled cookstoves

“…[COHb], which is rarely measured in cookstove exposure studies (4,40), was also shown to be an important variable. In addition, we have shown that our model can be used to investigate the responses of anemic women to cookstove CO exposures, an issue that would be both difficult and expensive to address experimentally.…”

“…Epidemiologic studies conducted in Latin America, SubSaharan Africa, and Asia provide substantial evidence of a causal association between smoke exposure and respiratory disease (24,29,30,32,37,40). A strong link has been documented between biomass fuel exposure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in women and acute lower respiratory tract infections in children (11,15,36).…”

Improving comfort levels in a traditional high altitude Nepali house

“…[3] and [4]. In addition, fuelwood is now in short supply in many areas and this means that increasing time is spent travelling to and carrying heavy loads from remaining fuelwood sources.…”