Health Risk Assessment of Indoor Air Quality, Socioeconomic and House Characteristics on Respiratory Health among Women and Children of Tirupur, South India

Krassi Rumchev, Yun Zhao and Jeffery Spickett
Additional contact information
Krassi Rumchev: School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6148, Australia
Yun Zhao: School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6148, Australia
Jeffery Spickett: School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6148, Australia

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: Background: Indoor air pollution is still considered as one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and especially in developing countries, including India. This study aims to assess social, housing, and indoor environmental factors associated with respiratory health among mothers and children. Methods: The study was conducted in the city of Tirupur, South India. We quantitatively assessed the indoor exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and carbon monoxide in relation to respiratory health among women and children. Information on health status, household characteristics and socioeconomic factors was collected using a modified standardised questionnaire. Results: This study demonstrates the significant health impact of housing and socioeconomic characteristics on the burden of respiratory illness among women and children in urban South India. Increased respiratory symptoms were recorded among women and children from low income households, and those who allowed smoking inside. The mean PM 2.5 concentration measured in this study was 3.8 mg/m 3 which exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) 24 h guideline value of 0.025 mg/m 3 . Conclusions: This study is the first to our knowledge carried out in urban South India and the findings can be used for future intervention studies.

Keywords: indoor air quality; socio economic status (SES) house characteristics; particulates; developing countries; respiratory health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/4/429/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/4/429/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:4:p:429-:d:96047

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().