What is Indoor Air Pollution?

 Indoor air pollution or IAP   More than three billion people worldwide continue to depend on solid fuels, including biomass fuels (wood, dung, agricultural residues) and coal, for their energy needs. This is half of the world’s population!  Cooking and heating with solid fuels on open fires or traditional stoves results in high levels of indoor air pollution. Indoor smoke contains a range of health- damaging pollutants, such as small particles and carbon monoxide, and particulate pollution levels may be 20 times higher than accepted guideline values.

World Health Organization  WHO particularly emphasizes the importance of ongoing and planned intervention projects but also encourages research into the impacts of indoor air pollution on a range of health outcomes.

Is it a big deal?  The WHO conducted a comparative risk assessment to estimate the contributions of selected major risk factors to the burden of disease back in the year  Indoor air pollution from solid fuel use was responsible for more than 1.6 million annual deaths and 2.7% of the global burden of disease (in Disability-Adjusted Life Years or DALYs). This is one person dead every 20 seconds.  This makes this risk factor the second biggest environmental contributor to ill health, behind unsafe water and sanitation.  IT IS THE #2 RISK FACTOR for cause of ill health!

Young Children are at the highest risk…  Acute lower respiratory infections, in particular pneumonia, continue to be the biggest killer of young children and cause more than 2 million annual deaths. Dependence on polluting solid fuels to meet basic energy needs is one of the underlying causes of pneumonia among children.  Every year, indoor air pollution is responsible for nearly deaths due to pneumonia among children under five years of age.

So why don’t we hear about it more often?  The importance of indoor air pollution varies drastically according to the level of development: in developing countries (high-mortality countries), indoor air pollution is responsible for up to 3.7% of the burden of disease, while the same risk factor no longer features among the top 10 risk factors in industrialized countries, such as the United States.

What are these biomass fuels?  Wood is mainly composed of Cellulose, the carbohydrate that gives structure to most plants (generic chemical formula (C 6 H 10 O 5 ) n repeating).  Coal does not have a chemical formula since it’s a mixture. However, depending on the type of coal, it is composed of between % carbon, by mass, with the rest being Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and trace amounts of Sulfur.  Animal dung is often used because it is mainly a lot of plant material, also carbon based.

We can help…  Clearly, some of the world’s regions rely heavily on solid fuel use at the household level whereas others have made an almost complete transition to cleaner fuels, such as gas and electricity. For example, more than 70% of the population in India, China and Africa continue to cook with solid fuels.

Basic Combustion Reaction  Since all of these biomass fuels are carbon based they all burn according to the same basic reaction.  Complete Combustion occurs when you have a hot, efficient burn: C x H x + O 2  CO 2 + H 2 O  Incomplete Combustion occurs with an inefficient burn: C x H x + O 2  CO + H 2 O

What else is in the smoke? Indoor smoke contains a variety of health- damaging pollutants:  particles (complex mixtures of chemicals in solid form and droplets)  carbon monoxide CO  nitrous oxides N 2 O  sulphur oxides (mainly from coal) SO 2  formaldehyde H 2 CO a carcinogen  other carcinogens (chemical substances known to increase the risk of cancer) such as benzo[a]pyrene and benzene.  Small particles of soot with a diameter of 10 microns (PM10) or less are able to penetrate deep into the lungs and appear to have the greatest health-damaging potential.

Fort Collins organization are getting involved  Evirofit, a local Fort Collins Company along with Shell Foundation’s Breathing Space program are geared towards providing 10 million clean burning stoves in 5 countries over the next 5 years.  These stoves are being designed at the CSU Engine and Energy Conservation Lab to release significantly less toxic emissions and use less fuel through better burning efficiency.

More Chemistry…  Engineers are currently working out the best materials to use with the best physical and chemical properties, mainly low corrosion and high insulative properties.  Proper design features are also important allow for a hot and efficient flame using even limited biomass fuels to conserve on environmental, economic and time involvement impacts.

Ongoing Study: Chronic Respiratory Effects of Early Childhood Exposure to Respirable Particulate Matter  UC Berkeley is currently working on a 5 year long term project to follow a cohort of children in Guatamala participating in a Randomized Exposure Study of Pollution Indoors and Respiratory Effects (RESPIRE) –  This study will track the chronic effects of inhaled particulate matter during the critical time window of infant lung development on respiratory health.

Randomized Exposure Study of Pollution Indoors and Respiratory Effects (RESPIRE) 1 st Video Describing San Marcos, Guatamala IAP Study 2 nd Video describing how to get quantitative measurements 3 rd Video describing how the stoves can be made:

Mr. Jasmann’s Chemistry Project  We will be mirroring the inside of soda bottles with silver atoms in class. If you’d like to keep them for yourself or as gifts, you can pay $5 ($2 will cover the expense of the chemicals and the bottle).  Any extra money raised (approximately $3 per bottle) through the sale of our silver-mirrored bottles will be donated to the Envirofit mission of providing clean burning stoves directly to Puruvian citizen in the Andes this January and February  We will get to see the money used directly by the people who live there and get photos back showing exactly how this money has helped.

Work Cited  The World Health Report  en/index.html en/index.html en/index.html  Fuel for Life: Household Energy and Health html html html  Envirofit Website  Engine and Energy Conservation Lab  Chronic Respiratory Effects of Early Childhood Exposure to Respirable Particulate Matter