摘要：Most of the houses in the village have kitchen outside the house and one of the reasons of having it outside is to avoid smoke inside the house. Smoke from the traditional chulhas during cooking is one of the major causes for ill health of rural women. Acute Lower Respiratory Infections (ALRI) refers to various infections of lower respiratory tract mainly caused by bacteria in developing countries- the most serious case of which is pneumonia. According to WHO, 36 per cent of all ALRI is attributed to Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) from the use of biomass fuels (fuelwood, animal dung, crop residues etc.) for cooking, heating and light. In a typical household, cooking with biomass fuels, the level of particulate matter (LOPM), which is one of the healt h damaging pollutants due to IAP , is as high as two to twenty times higher than what the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) considers a safe level and ALRI is not the only burden due to IAP. Studies have shown that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in women above 45 years has a strong and consistent association wit h IAP, COPD is estimated to claim 106,000 Indians every year. Ot her outcomes for which evidence is moderate or tentative include otitis, asthma, low birth weight, tuberculosis, cataract, parental prenatal mortality, nasopharyngeal cancer and laryngeal cancer (Taishi, 2004).
