Pregnant Women’s Exposure to Household Air Pollution in Rural Bangladesh: A Feasibility Study for Poriborton: The CHANge Trial

Jonathan Thornburg, Sajia Islam, Sk Masum Billah, Brianna Chan, Michelle McCombs, Maggie Abbott, Ashraful Alam and Camille Raynes-Greenow
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Jonathan Thornburg: RTI International, Technology-Advancement-Commercialization, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27707, USA
Sajia Islam: Maternal and Child Health Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Sk Masum Billah: Maternal and Child Health Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Brianna Chan: RTI International, Technology-Advancement-Commercialization, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27707, USA
Michelle McCombs: RTI International, Technology-Advancement-Commercialization, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27707, USA
Maggie Abbott: RTI International, Technology-Advancement-Commercialization, 3040 Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27707, USA
Ashraful Alam: Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Edward Ford Building (A27), Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia
Camille Raynes-Greenow: Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Edward Ford Building (A27), Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: The use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking is a strategy to reduce household air pollution (HAP) exposure and improve health. We conducted this feasibility study to evaluate personal exposure measurement methods to representatively assess reductions in HAP exposure. We enrolled 30 pregnant women to wear a MicroPEM for 24 h to assess their HAP exposure when cooking with a traditional stove (baseline) and with an LPG stove (intervention). The women wore the MicroPEM an average of 77% and 69% of the time during the baseline and intervention phases, respectively. Mean gravimetric PM 2.5 mass and black carbon concentrations were comparable during baseline and intervention. Temporal analysis of the MicroPEM nephelometer data identified high PM 2.5 concentrations in the afternoon, late evening, and overnight during the intervention phase. Likely seasonal sources present during the intervention phase were emissions from brick kiln and rice parboiling facilities, and evening kerosene lamp and mosquito coil use. Mean background adjusted PM 2.5 concentrations during cooking were lower during intervention at 71 μg/m 3 , versus 105 μg/m 3 during baseline. Representative real-time personal PM 2.5 concentration measurements supplemented with ambient PM 2.5 measures and surveys will be a valuable tool to disentangle external sources of PM 2.5 , other indoor HAP sources, and fuel-sparing behaviors when assessing the HAP reduction due to intervention with LPG stoves.

Keywords: household air pollution; personal exposure; biomass; liquified petroleum gas; pregnancy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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