Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Household exposures'

This thesis is designed to explore the hypothesis that settled dust in a domestic environment can contain significant levels of allergens and that common cleaning methods employed to remove dust can result in sufficient airborne exposure to potentially trigger an allergic reaction. Qualitative feedback from respondents in studies of furniture dusting habits indicated that household furniture dusting could elicit an allergic response. A consumer questionnaire was fielded to confirm the problem and it's magnitude. This indicated that it affected approximately 20% of allergy sufferers (or approximately 5% of the total UK population). Further work was performed to estimate the level of allergen exposure during dusting. Additional consumer research was fielded to ascertain the surface area being dusted, (approximately 54000cm2 for frequently dusted areas and 10000cm2 for frequently dusted areas). Domestic dusting habits were probed for the relative frequency of dusting method, which split evenly between dry dusting, wet dusting with water and wet dusting with a furniture polish. Surface sampling techniques were adapted to make in-home measurements of the rate of dust settling which was found to be approximately 3.19x10 -7 g.cm-2,day-1. In-home sampling was also undertaken to measure the mean allergen content of surface dust for major allergens, yielding 24667ng.g-1 combined dust mite, 47696ng.g-1 Fel d 1 and approximately 126 8 08ng.g-1 Can f 1. Laboratory-based studies determined the relative amount of dust rendered airborne during dusting of different furniture surface types and comparing different cleaning methods. This was found to be between 2.3- 43.0%. From these experiments, a model "average" home was constructed and used to estimate the exposure towards dust allergens during a typical dusting task. Exposure was estimated to be as much as 16500ng total dust mite, 124000 mug (31000 mU) cat allergen and 275000 ng (IU) dog allergen per dusting method. These results indicated that allergen exposure, under certain circumstances, could exceed the threshold levels that have been proposed for the onset of sensitisation.

Gender differences are marked in China in terms of smoking prevalence, with over half of Chinese adult men smoking while few women smoke. While studies have suggested that the women’s role be taken into account regarding anti-smoking initiatives, few in-depth studies have exclusively explored women’s constructions of their male family members’ smoking, particularly in rural contexts where smoking is rampant. Using a gender lens, the current study explores the role of mothers of young children to protect their children from exposure to SHS (Secondhand smoke). The study applies a micro-sociological approach using ethnography as the primary research methodology. Fieldwork for the study was conducted between November, 2008 and August, 2009 in a rural area of Central Jiangsu, China. Recruitment of the participants was guided by feminist theory about the values and limitations of the women’s experiences in constructing knowledge about their social life. While mothers of young children were the primary target participants, other family members were also recruited to complement the data from the mothers. In total 16 mothers of young children, four fathers, four grandfathers and five grandmothers were invited to participate in the study. In addition to field observations in home and public settings, interviews carried out with the 29 family members constituted a substantial part of the data. The study revealed that, while father’s smoking was a source of SHS exposure for children in their family, grandfathers’ smoking had become a more important source, posing challenges for mothers in their efforts to protect their children from SHS. Despite limited knowledge about the risks of tobacco smoke to their children’s health, mothers were highly motivated to reduce SHS for their children, who were generally the only child in the family as a result of the one-child policy. The initiation and selection of the strategies to reduce children’s SHS exposure were mediated by gender relationships between mothers and smokers. The lower status of women in the wider social structure, along with the broad acceptance of smoking in the social environment, further limited mothers’ agency in dealing with home smoking. This study calls for re-thinking of the development of home smoking control initiatives which rely solely on expectant/mothers’ roles because of their influence on men’s smoking. Interventions involving family members in a stronger position of power within the family, particularly the grandparents of children, can ease the moral pressure on young mothers to regulate men’s smoking and reduce the potential damage to family harmony caused by junior members’ confronting the smoking behaviours of patriarchal authorities in the family. Furthermore, policies are needed to tackle the pro-smoking culture in rural China.

A large and growing proportion of the world’s population rely on shared sanitation facilities. These have historically been excluded from international sanitation targets due to concerns about acceptability, hygiene and access. With the development of new targets and indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals, it has been proposed to include shared facilities as ‘improved’ sanitation based on the number of users, if the facility is of an ‘improved’ technology and if the users are known to each other. The aim of this research was threefold: i) to provide an overview of the available evidence on shared sanitation and outcomes related to health, access, use, operation and maintenance, gender and cost, ii) to describe the geographic and demographic scope of shared sanitation globally, and iii) to develop and pilot methods exploring factors that may explain any increased risk of adverse health outcomes associated with shared sanitation. Results from a systematic literature review on shared sanitation and health showed that households accessing shared sanitation facilities were more likely to suffer from ill-health, specifically diarrhoea. However, the methodological quality of the available studies was limited. The global analysis of household survey data showed that households sharing sanitation facilities were poorer, less educated and more likely to live in urban areas. The majority of households accessing shared sanitation were found in Africa and South-East Asia. The results from the literature review and household survey data led to the development of a cross-sectional study in Orissa, India. This study aimed to assess differences in shared and private sanitation access in 30 slums—both in terms of the users and the actual facilities. Results from this study show that households accessing shared sanitation were poorer, less educated and less likely to have water access in or near their home. In addition, significant differences in terms of cleanliness and presence of water were observed between private and shared facilities. Users of shared sanitation were more likely to continue practicing open defecation and significantly more cases of diarrhoea were reported by individuals living in these households. The underlying reasons for this potential increased risk of disease for users of shared sanitation are not clear, but the type of users, cleanliness of facilities and opportunities to practice good hygiene are all expected to play a role. As such, these factors may also be of importance, in addition to the number of users and sanitation technology, if a shared sanitation facility is expected to be considered ‘improved’ sanitation in future monitoring targets.

L'usage à domicile de Produits de Nettoyage et de Désinfection (PND) contenant des irritants et ceux utilisés sous forme de spray est un facteur de risque établi d'asthme. En conséquence, les consommateurs pourraient rechercher des alternatives potentiellement moins nocives et utiliser des lingettes, des produits écologiques ou des produits faits maison. Cependant, aucune étude épidémiologique n'a examiné les effets sur l'asthme associés à l’usage à domicile de ces PND. L'objectif général de cette thèse était d'évaluer les associations entre l'usage à domicile de différents PND et l’asthme par des approches transversales et longitudinales. Nos analyses ont porté sur les données de trois cohortes françaises : CONSTANCES, NutriNet-Santé et EGEA, dans lesquelles l'usage à domicile de PND et l'asthme ont été évalués par questionnaires standardisés. Ces travaux de thèse ont confirmé l’augmentation de l’usage de PND pendant la pandémie de COVID-19. Nous avons observé qu'un usage hebdomadaire de lingettes et de produits écologiques était associé à l'asthme actuel et à l'asthme non contrôlé (analyses transversales). Cependant, un usage hebdomadaire de produits faits maison n’était pas associé à l’asthme. Un usage hebdomadaire persistant et augmenté d'irritants/sprays ainsi que de produits écologiques était associé à une augmentation du risque de détérioration ou d’incidence de l’asthme (analyses longitudinales). Les résultats de cette thèse suggèrent pour la première fois que l’usage à domicile de lingettes et de produits écologiques est à risque pour l’asthme, alors que l’usage de produits faits maison ne semble pas être délétère pour l’asthme. Pour la prévention primaire et secondaire de l’asthme, d’autres études sont nécessaires afin d’identifier spécifiquement les composés à l’origine de ces effets néfastes sur la santé respiratoire, en particulier ceux contenus dans les produits écologiques
The household use of Disinfectant and Cleaning Products (DCPs) containing irritants, and those used in a spray form is an established asthma risk factor. In consequence, consumers might seek for potentially less harmful alternatives, and turn to wipes, green products or homemade products. However, no epidemiological study investigated the effects on asthma associated with the household use of these DCPs. The main objective of this thesis was to evaluate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the household use of various DCPs and asthma. Our analyses were based on data from three French cohorts: CONSTANCES, NutriNet-Santé, and EGEA, in which household use of DCPs and asthma were assessed using standardized questionnaires. This thesis work confirmed the increased use of DCPs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We observed that a weekly use of wipes and green products was associated with current asthma and uncontrolled asthma (cross-sectional analyses). However, a weekly use of homemade products was not associated with current asthma. A persistent and an increased weekly use of both irritants/sprays and green products was associated with a higher risk of deterioration or incidence of asthma (longitudinal analyses). The results of this thesis suggest for the first time that the household use of wipes and green products is at risk for asthma, whereas the use of homemade products did not seem to have an impact on asthma. For asthma primary and secondary prevention, further studies are needed to specifically identify the compounds causing these adverse effects on respiratory health, particularly those contained in green products

The purpose of this study is to contribute to efforts to measuring and assessing resilience properties of household livelihoods, constructed in the risky environments, explaining why some households are more resilient than others. Based on resilience theory as applied to social-ecological systems with an application of Modern Portfolio Theory, this study adapted and measure the four properties of resilient livelihood systems and tested the expected relationships between system properties. It also examines risk coping behaviors of households and its role in shaping resilience trajectories of livelihoods towards a positive food security outcome. This study suggests that the major source of poor household resilience is both structurally constrained adaptive capacity and high shock exposure. Therefore, resilience programs that are designed in a similar risk prone and chronically food insecure districts of the country, should promote risk reduction measures while implementing programs designed to address structural causes of food insecurity.
El propósito de este estudio es contribuir a los esfuerzos para medir y evaluar las propiedades de resiliencia de los medios de vida de los hogares, construidos en entornos de riesgo, explicando por qué algunos hogares son más resistentes que otros. Basado en la teoría de la resiliencia aplicada a los sistemas socioecológicos con la aplicación de Modern Portfolio Theory, este estudio adapta y mide las cuatro propiedades de los sistemas de medios de vida resilientes y prueba las relaciones esperadas entre las propiedades del sistema.

This project defines a concept, “attention to quality,” and proposes that legislative attention to quality is a dependent variable that political science can use to evaluate the content of representation the political system offers, specifically to trace a means by which politics may influence household exposure to financial risk and possibly income inequality. Upstream of regulation or other formal policy solutions, attention to quality is observable consideration of the possibility that a good poses risk, or fails to shield consumers from risk, due to features of its own design. The project studies congressional attention to quality for three privately-vended, middle-class goods with the capacity to impact household risk exposure: health insurance, home loans, and prescription drugs. It also examines attention to quality in risk-modulating pieces of the welfare-state, taking Medicare as an example. The project explicitly contrasts attention to quality with attention to access for each good. Second, based on original datasets, this project reports robust evidence that legislative attention to access exceeds legislative attention to quality for the privately vended goods, particularly insurance and loans. It finds the reverse true of welfare-state goods. In doing so, the project contributes new quantitative evidence to the emergent body of research in American politics on how political processes, as opposed to strictly the macro-economy, may influence household financial insecurity. Third, the project makes progress in uncovering the underpinnings of quality attention. It finds senator attention to quality linked to partisan considerations—particularly the other political party’s degree of dominance in quality talk—in ways that appear to depress quality attention for privately-vended goods but buoy it for welfare-state goods. Quality’s visibility to the public appears to heighten the degree to which legislators consider the other party’s degree of dominance in quality talk when deciding whether to give quality attention. These patterns occur against a backdrop of what appears to be electorally-minded access attention: incumbents attend to the access facet of privately-vended goods as reelection dates approach, while not exhibiting such behavior around the quality facet. These findings have implications for research on congressional agenda setting and representation.

Approximately 3 billion people in developing countries rely on solid fuels for their cooking, heating and lighting needs (Smith 2000). Household air pollution (HAP) from the incomplete combustion of these fuels constitutes the fourth leading risk factor for death and morbidity worldwide, and the number one risk factor for disease burden in some developing nations, including Ghana (Lim et al. 2013; Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation 2016). While research shows biomass fuel combustion presents a significant global health and environmental burden, no regional, national or global policies have been enacted to reduce fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC) emissions from cooking with biomass fuels. More data on personal exposures to particulate matter and BC from cooking with biomass are needed across geographic areas to assess whether exposure is mediated by (cultural) cooking customs, practices and behaviors. These data are critical in informing improved cookstove design as well as policies aimed at reducing harmful emissions and exposures from biomass smoke. The overall objective of this proposal is to examine personal exposures to cooking and non-cooking sources of HAP, characterize the elemental composition of the fine particulate matter across two common biomass fuels (charcoal and wood), and assess acute respiratory symptoms in pregnant women cooking with biomass fuels in rural Ghana. Through aerosol monitoring of PM2.5, our goal is to identify and apportion sources of personal exposures borne by cooks in rural Ghana, in order to inform mitigation policies and intervention design to alleviate health burden associated with cooking with biomass fuels. Specifically, in Aim 1 we propose to measure personal exposures and kitchen air concentrations of PM2.5 and BC across cooking locations, (i.e. enclosed, semi-enclosed, outdoor) and assess cooking characteristics (e.g. fuel, kitchen type, ethnicity) as possible determinants of exposure. In Aim 2, we will characterize the elemental composition of personal and kitchen air samples across fuel and kitchen types. These two aims will allow us to assess cooking and non-cooking sources of personal HAP exposure based on air monitoring data, composition of the filters, and survey-based cooking characteristics/demographics. In Aim 3, we propose to characterize the prevalence of adult respiratory symptoms in 1183 pregnant women in the region, and assess associations between personal exposure, measured by personal carbon monoxide (CO), and other cooking and non-cooking determinants of personal exposure, including fuel type, years cooked, kerosene lamp, mosquito coils, and charcoal production.

A gap in the literature exists regarding the chemical effects of household acids at different concentrations on restored and non-restored dentition. The present study examines the effects of household corrosive products on human dentition. A total of 105 adult teeth consisting of restorations composed of silver amalgam, porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns, and teeth lacking restorative material were used. The household products utilized were hydrochloric acid (Clorox® Bleach Cleaner and The Works® Toilet Bowl Cleaner) and sulfuric acid (Drano® Drain Opener and Watchdog® Battery Acid), along with one control base (Biz® Detergent). Teeth were radiographed before and after exposure to the products and were removed from the solutions after 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, 72, 120 and 264 hours. Documentation included weight, mesiodistal and buccolingual crown measurements, ordinal scoring of alterations, and photography. The results indicate 86% of the teeth could be positively identified by radiographs after exposure. Hydrochloric acid had the most destructive effects to teeth without restorations and those with silver amalgam restorations but had a minimal effect on the porcelain-fused-to-metal samples. Sulfuric acid minimally altered the restored teeth and deteriorated some parts of the enamel and dentin of the non-restored samples. Exposure to the detergent resulted in no change. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine if there was statistical relevance in acid type, acid concentration, and the type of restoration of the tooth. Results indicate that acid type, acid concentration and the type of restoration are all statistically relevant for positively identifying an individual through radiographs. The results of this study demonstrate that various household corrosive substances can affect the morphology of teeth, and in some cases, destroy teeth, which could mask the identification of an individual. However, the porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns were minimally affected by corrosive agents and can therefore be used for positive identifications.

This thesis contributes to knowledge by providing a better understanding of the social-ecological factors underlying the exposure, vulnerability and adaptation to climate variability and extremes. While there is research on the topic, there is little understanding about how these factors manifest in various livelihood contexts that are simultaneously experiencing increasing severity in climate variability and extreme events, particularly in rural areas that dominated by smallholder farmers. The Sudan Savannah Zone (SSZ) of Ghana, a zone that experiences and has rain-fed agriculture as the predominant livelihood source, presents an excellent lens through which this knowledge contribution can be explored. There is ample evidence suggesting that rural farm-households in the SSZ of the country, will continue to bear the brunt of climate-induced impacts, which may include devastated crop production and a major threat to natural resource-based livelihoods. In the face of these expected impacts, there is the need for in-depth understanding of climate-farm-household relationships in order to facilitate efficient and effective responses. This mixed method research project involved the geospatial analysis of the distribution of climate risks, indexing of exposure and vulnerability levels and the examination of climate risk coping and adaptation dynamics among smallholder farm-households. These activities were done using secondary spatial data and primary data from focus group discussions and surveys of farm-household heads. In all, 3 districts, 230 farm-household heads (for the survey) and 33 (for FGDs) were involved in the study. Study results show that although districts were in the same agroecological zone, there were significant spatial variations in terms of the distribution of climate risk. Out of the five biophysical factors used in the geospatial analysis, three factors significantly explained the spatial variance in risk levels (i.e. aridity, vegetation cover, and land use/cover). Similarly, the survey found that despite the high level of respondent awareness and perception of climate risks and livelihood threats, there were significant variations among farm-households depending on the district, the gender of household heads and the number of years engaged in farming. Interestingly, although all farm-households were in the category of moderate and high exposure to climate risks, female-headed households were relatively less exposed compared to male-headed households. However, disaggregation of the composite exposure index showed that under some of the risk factors, female-headed households were relatively more exposed than male-headed households. Results from the exposure analysis varied according to the specific climate risk factor and by the gender of the household head. Findings from the vulnerability assessment indicated that female-headed households were comparatively more likely to be highly susceptible to climate risks. The gendered asymmetry in farm-household vulnerability was found to be rooted in the inequalities in livelihood diversification opportunities, finance, human and natural capital base. Moreover, the significant variance across study districts affirms that vulnerability is contextual and heterogeneous in space, even at the local level. Results showed that the underlying determinants of the chosen adaptation strategies included: the gender of the household head; age; education; farming experience; access to credit; livelihood diversification; and land tenure. The findings further showed that barriers to climate adaptation in the study area are mainly related to issues such as: farm-household finance; lack of institutional support; cost of farm inputs, the socio-cultural structure which defines relationships in these communities, and physical infrastructure. This project finds there is significant relationship between the availability of, and accessibility to, sustainable livelihood assets and the extent to which a farm-household may or may not be exposed, vulnerable, and able to engage in adaptation. The study, therefore, demonstrates that having a comprehensive understanding of social-ecological system dynamics and how they determine climate exposure, vulnerability, and adaptation is fundamental to any planned or autonomous initiative that seeks to build system resilience.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2018

碩士
高雄醫學院
公共衛生學研究所
85
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to survey the general public,s knowledge, attitude and behaviors in the use of household insecticides. We,ve encompassed the 11 districts of Kaoshiung in this study. Thirty village chiefs were randomly selected from each district.Two hundred and eighty five of them completed the questionnaires. Total retrieve 96.9%. Among them, 50.5% knew what were household insecticides. Of them, 73.6% indicated that their knowledge came from the public media.The study found that 94.0% of families used household insecticides. More than 71.4% used pyrethroids of household insecticides.The most used the aim for prevention and treatment mosquitoes. Using frequency over once month is 63.1%. 22.0% village chiefs often put mouthpiece on before used household insecticides.Using frequency respectively age, structure, style and years of the house were statistic significant difference (p<0.05). A statistic significant association (p<0.05) was obtained both for the label-reading and putting mouthpiece on before use vs. level of education. Ever feeling discomfortable symptoms 33.2% of interview with the chiefs. A statistic significant difference (p<0.05) discomfortable symptom vs. put mouthpiece on before used household insecticides.The lowest of the way body absorb household insecticides of knowledge is eyes. Attitude questionnaire more than 60% of the users liked to use household insecticides. Knowledge respectively attitude and behaviors were postive correlation. Base on our exposure assessment for the past summer, we found that the hazard index(HI) were less than one. HI=absorption (via inhalation + skin) / ADI, the allowable daily intake. Overall, we would concluded that the use of household insecticides in Kaoshiung City were reasonable and acceptable. Key words:household insecticides,vector control, knowledge, attitude, behavior

碩士
國立陽明大學
環境與職業衛生研究所
101
Cooking process generates lots of harmful fine and ultrafine particles. Ultrafine particles deposited in human lungs have been studied extensively, and has been shown to result in inflammation, impairment of phagocytosis, and thrombosis. In this study, we took the particle samples from five household kitchens by using the nano-Micro-Orifice Uniform-Deposit Impactors, and gaseous sample by using XAD-16 resin and polyurethane foam (PUF) plug, and monitored the particle concentrations by using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) and a 6-channel optical particle counter. During cooking, the particle mass concentrations increased two orders of magnetite as compared to the background concentrations and were significantly higher than the recommendation value of Indoor Air Quality Act of Taiwan. The number concentration of ultrafine particles can be higher than 106 particles/cm3. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) of the cooking fume are mainly distributed in the gas phase, and the ratio of particulate-phase PAHs to gaseous-phase PAHs increased with the number of rings of PAHs. Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) equivalent concentrations (Total BaPeq) were mainly contributed by the particulate-phase PAHs. Incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) induced by exposure to the PAHs of household kitchen cooking fume was greater than 10-5 which is higher than the recommended acceptable limit. The ILCR induced by the cooking fume PAHs deposited in the lung was higher than 1.03×10-6 (90 percentile) indicating that the daily 2-hour exposure to the kitchen cooking fumes may be relevant to the occurrence of Taiwan women’ lung cancer.

The population and economic growth experienced by Canadian metropolitan areas in the past twenty years, has been associated with increased levels of car ownership and vehicle kilometres travelled leading to a deterioration of air quality and public health and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The need to modify urban growth patterns has motivated planning agencies in Canada to develop a broad range of policies aiming at achieving a more sustainable transportation sector. The challenge however, remains in the ability to test the effectiveness of proposed policy measures. This situation has led to a renewed interest in integrated land-use and transport models to support transport policy appraisal. This research is motivated by the need to improve transport policy appraisal through the use of integrated land-use and transport models linked with a range of sub-models that can reflect transport externalities. This research starts with an exploration of the transport policy environment in Canada through a questionnaire-based survey conducted with planners and policy-makers. The survey results highlight the need for tools reflecting the sustainability impacts of proposed policies. While the second part of this research explores sustainability indicators and recommends a set of social, economic, and environmental measures, linked with integrated land-use and transport models; effort is dedicated to estimate the environmental indicators as part of this thesis. As such, the third part of this research involves the development of an emission-dispersion-exposure modelling framework. The framework includes a suite of sub-models including an activity-based travel demand model (TASHA), an emission factor model (Mobile6.2C), a meteorological model (CALMET), and a dispersion model (CALPUFF). The framework is used to estimate link-based emissions of light-duty vehicles in the Greater Toronto Area under a base scenario for 2001. Dispersion of emissions is then conducted and linked with population in order to estimate exposure to air pollution.

碩士
中國醫藥大學
環境醫學研究所碩士班
95
Asthma is one of most concerned chronic diseases and important in public health. It is estimated that around 3 billion of population suffer from the disease worldwide. A number of studies have reported the air pollution may affect children’s lung function development and asthmatic condition. This study used data established from two mass asthma screening surveys conducted in Taiwan. The first one was a nationwide for asthma among all junior high school students and 20% students received further lung function tests in October 1995 - June 1996. The other one was a mass screening survey from July 1996 - June 1997 in Taipei area among ninth-grade students who had participated in both asthma screening and pulmonary function measurement in the previous year. In this study, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was used to estimate the association between air pollution exposure and lung function and asthma. The spatial analysis procedure was used Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) estimate method in 500m × 500m grid squares. The results showed PM10, SO2, NO2 and O3 were related to adolescent lung function in both FVC and FEV1, and the CO exposure increased significantly the lowered FEV1 to FVC ratio, causing lung hazards. Children with high NO2 concentrations exposure have the increased asthma prevalence with an odds ratio of 3.07 (95% CI: 1.06-8.87). However, parental asthma still association their children with asthma. This study found parental asthmatic condition and indoor pollution are highly association with asthma and lung function in children. Outdoor air pollutants are also risk factors deserve further exploration.

Traditional cooking using biomass is associated with adverse health consequences, local environmental degradation, and regional climate change. Improved stoves (ICS; liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), biogas, electric, efficient biomass) are heralded as a solution, but their adoption and use remains low. In the first chapter, I report on a series of pilot programs that utilized the marketing mix principles of promotion, product, price and place to increase stove sales in rural Inia. We found that when given a choice amongst products, households strongly preferred an electric stove over improved biomass-burning options. Households clearly identified price as a significant barrier to adoption, while provision of discounts (e.g., rebates given if households used the stove) or payments in installments were related to higher purchase. Collectively, these pilots point to the importance of continued and extensive testing of messages, pricing models, and responses to different stove types prior to scale-up. Thus, a one-size-fits-all approach will be unlikely to boost ICS adoption.

In the second and third chapters, I analyze the impact of mainly improved stove use on social, environmental, and health outcomes in rural India- first in a sample of biogas stove users in Odisha, India, and next with households in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. In both settings, ICS use was associated with reduced use of firewood, substantial time savings for primary cooks, and significant reduction in exposure to particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in household air. I find that ICS users in Odisha spend reduced time in the hospital with acute respiratory infection and reduced diastolic blood pressure, but no relationship with other health measurements.

In the third chapter, I also find significant reduction in exposure to personal air pollution. Using temperature sensors as objective stove use monitors for all stoves and heaters we find that households underreport use of improved and traditional stoves.

These papers provide encouraging evidence of potential for adoption of clean stove and a suite of benefits from clean stove use; however, in order to achieve recommended levels of air pollution additional policies may be needed.

Dissertation

Background Indoor air pollution due to use of biomass fuels (BMF) for household cooking and heating is a known risk factor of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of five years. A recent study in India suggested an association between biomass fuel smoke exposure anaemia and stunting among children under the age of five. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between BMF use, stunting and anaemia in children aged 12-59 months who participated in the 2006-2007 Swaziland Demographic and Health Survey (SDHS), whilst adjusting for potential confounders. Methods The study was cross-sectional and based on secondary data analysis of data collected through the household and women’s questionnaires in the 2006-2007 SDHS, which employed a multistage random sampling. Anthropometric measurements taken in the SDHS and the World Health Organization (WHO) 2006 Multi-Centre Child growth reference standards were used to ascertain children’s health status and the stunting outcome variable. A child, whose height-for-age ratio was below three standard deviations (SD) from the median of the WHO reference population in terms of height-for-age, was severely stunted or short for his/her age. A child, whose height-for-age ratio was between three and two SD below the median of the WHO reference population in terms of height-for-age, was mildly stunted. The exposure to BMF smoke variable was ascertained indirectly by type of fuel used for cooking. The exposure was a three category variable of cleaner fuel, outdoor BMF and indoor BMF use. All statistical analysis was done in STATA version 10. The relationship between BMF use and stunting or anaemia was determined using multinomial logistic regression analyses, whilst adjusting for potential confounding factors, identified in previous research. Results Of the 1612 children included in the study, 37% were anaemic. Nineteen percent were mildly and 18% were moderate to severely anaemic. Indoor BMF use, child age, low birth weight, mother’s age at birth, iron supplementation during pregnancy and mother’s anaemia status was significantly associated with child anaemia in univariate analysis. Outdoor BMF exposure, low birth weight, child age, mother’s anaemia status and wealth index was associated with child anaemia after adjusting for potential confounding. Overall 31% of children were stunted. Twenty percent were mildly stunted and 11% were moderate to severely stunted. Child sex, age, birth order, preceding birth interval, low birth weight, diarrhoea in preceding two weeks, anaemia status, iron supplementation during pregnancy, mother’s age at birth ,mother’s body mass index, mother’s education, wealth index, indoor BMF exposure and household crowding were each independently associated with stunting in univariate analysis. Only child sex, low birth weight and child age were significantly associated with stunting after adjusting for potential confounding. There was no evidence of an association between indoor BMF smoke exposure and child stunting after adjusting for all potential confounding factors. Conclusion This study did not find sufficient evidence to suggest that indoor BMF use is a statistically significant risk factor for anaemia or stunting in children aged 12-59 months participating in the 2006-2007 SDHS. There was however an evidence that, use of BMF outdoors significantly confers a protective effect against moderate to severe anaemia. Prospective research into these potential relationships are necessary, particularly the collection of primary data and accurate measurement of exposure to smoke emitted during BMF use for cooking and heating.

Wong, Chiu Yi.
Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-115).
Abstracts also in Chinese; some appendixes in Chinese.
Title from PDF title page (viewed on 03, November, 2016).
Wong, Chiu Yi.