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Use of cleaner-burning biomass stoves and airway macrophage black carbon in Malawian women

Whitehouse, Abigail L., Miyashita, Lisa, Liu, Norrice M., Lesosky, Maia, Flitz, Graham, Ndamala, Chifundo, Balmes, John R., Gordon, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6576-1116, Mortimer, Kevin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8118-8871 and Grigg, Jonathan (2018) 'Use of cleaner-burning biomass stoves and airway macrophage black carbon in Malawian women'. Science of The Total Environment, Vol 635, pp. 405-411.

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Abstract

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) from burning of biomass for cooking is associated with adverse health effects. It is unknown whether or not cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstoves reduce the amount of PM inhaled by women compared with traditional open fires.
We sought to assess whether airway macrophage black carbon (AMBC) - a marker of inhaled dose of carbonaceous PM from biomass and fossil fuel combustion - is lower in Malawian women using a cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstove compared with those using open fires for cooking. AMBC was assessed in induced sputum samples using image analysis and personal exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) and PM were measured using Aprovecho Indoor Air Pollution meters. A fossil-fuel exposed group of UK women was also studied.
Induced sputum samples were obtained from 57 women from which AMBC was determined in 31. Median AMBC was 6.87 μm2 (IQR 4.47–18.5) and 4.37 μm2 (IQR 2.57–7.38) in the open fire (n = 11) and cleaner burning cookstove groups (n = 20), respectively (p = 0.028). There was no difference in personal exposure to CO and PM between the two groups. UK women (n = 5) had lower AMBC (median 0.89 μm2, IQR 0.56–1.13) compared with both Malawi women using traditional cookstoves (p < 0.001) and those using cleaner cookstoves (p = 0.022).
We conclude that use of a cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstove reduces inhaled PM dose in a way that is not necessarily reflected by personal exposure monitoring

Item Type: Article
Subjects: WA Public Health > WA 20.5 Research (General)
WA Public Health > WA 30 Socioeconomic factors in public health (General)
WA Public Health > Health Problems of Special Population Groups > WA 309 Women's health
WA Public Health > Air pollution > WA 754 Pollution and pollutants (incl. tobacco pollution; passive smoking)
WA Public Health > Housing. Buildings. Public Facilities > WA 795 Housing
WF Respiratory System > WF 140 Diseases of the respiratory system (General)
WF Respiratory System > WF 20 Research (General)
WF Respiratory System > Lungs > WF 600 Lungs
Faculty: Department: Clinical Sciences & International Health > Clinical Sciences Department
Clinical Sciences & International Health > Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme (MLW)
Digital Object Identifer (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.125
Related URLs:
SWORD Depositor: JISC Pubrouter
Depositing User: Stacy Murtagh
Date Deposited: 01 May 2018 11:40
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2019 08:24
URI: https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/8558

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