Indoor pollution ups cardio risk among women
July 10th, 2011 - 1:18 pm ICT by IANSWashington, July 10 (IANS) The practice of cooking with wood or cow dung inside houses exposes millions of women to fine particles of air pollution in developing countries which can cause premature death and lung disease.
Biomass fuels are also the primary source of energy for more than two billion people globally. University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have linked indoor air pollution with increased blood pressure among older women.
“I spent a lot of time watching women cook in these unvented kitchens, and within seconds, my eyes would burn, it would get a little difficult to breathe,” says Jill Baumgartner, doctoral student at UW-Madison.
“The women talk about these same discomforts but they are viewed as just another hardship of rural life.
“Most women are exposed to this smoke for several hours a day. Even if the cook stove is vented, a second fire is often burning for heat,” says Baumgartner, now a fellow at the Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota.
Baumgartner and colleagues associated higher levels of indoor air pollution with a significantly higher blood pressure among women aged 50 and over, reports the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Other studies have shown that improved stoves or cleaner fuels can cut indoor air pollution by 50-75 percent, according to a Wisconsin university statement.
Such a change “may be of little consequence for an individual”, says co-author Leonelo Baustista, associate professor of population health sciences at UW-Madison.
“However, changes of this magnitude in a population would have a significant, large impact on the risk of cardiovascular disease in the population.”
–Indo-Asian News service
st/mn/mr
- Coal, wood burning kills more people than malaria - Feb 17, 2012
- 'Nobel Laureate Har Gobind Khorana revolutionised biotechnology' - Nov 12, 2011
- Air filters linked to improved cardiovascular health - Jan 22, 2011
- Climate change stifling ocean's carbon uptake - Jul 11, 2011
- For rural homes, a lamp that's also a stove! (With Image) - Feb 14, 2011
- Air pollution fueling respiratory diseases in cities: WHO - Sep 27, 2011
- Pollution 'can cause obesity and diabetes' - Dec 28, 2010
- Rural restaurants for food security - and jobs too (Comment) - May 16, 2012
- Stove fumes as big a killer as AIDS - Dec 17, 2010
- How eating less can make you live longer - Nov 19, 2010
- Astronomy technique can help detect deadly melanoma - Apr 28, 2011
- Second-hand cigarette smoke associated with raised blood pressure in boys - May 02, 2011
- New technology simplifies embryonic stem cell culturing - Nov 15, 2010
- Rising CO2 levels could be making trees grow like crazy - Dec 05, 2009
- Air pollution can stop woman getting pregnant through IVF - May 12, 2010
Tags: asian news, baumgartner, biomass fuels, co author, cook stove, cow dung, doctoral student, environmental health perspectives, indoor air pollution, indoor pollution, little consequence, lung disease, population health sciences, premature death, primary source, risk of cardiovascular disease, rural life, source of energy, university of wisconsin madison, wisconsin university