An Evaluation of the Indoor/outdoor Air Pollution and Respiratory Health of Farmers Living in Rural Areas of Anhui Province, China

To evaluate the levels of indoor air pollution in rural areas of China and their effects on respiratory health, we monitored the indoor (bedroom and kitchen) and outdoor levels of PM10, SO2 and CO in 189 randomly selected households of rural areas, Anhui province, China. We also conducted an investigation of 487 subjects between the ages of 15 – 65 years old with a questionnaire. The PM10 level of indoors air was significantly higher than that outdoors (518±27/287±9μg/m3, P<0.01), in contrast to the SO2 level that was lower. We didn’t find a significant association to asthma onset with these levels of PM10 and SO2 of the indoor air (P>0.05). FVC, FEV1 were closely related with the CO and PM10 exposure indices in the bedroom (P<0.01). Conclusion: the indoor air pollution in rural areas may come from combustion of fuel in cooking and heating, which has had adverse effects on the respiratory health of the subjects. INDEX TERMS Indoor air pollution, PM10, Rural area, Respiratory health INTRODUCTION The air pollution of China is currently significantly higher than in most of the world, but it does not appear that outdoor air pollution is a major risk factor for human health. Nowadays most people living in urban areas spend the greater part of their time indoors, where concentrations of many air pollutants are higher than outdoors (Carrer et al., 1997). In fact, exposure to indoor air pollutants may play an important role in affecting the health of the human body. (Infante-Rivard, 1993). Many studies suggest that conditions of poor indoor air quality, such as inadequate ventilation, uncomfortable microclimate or irritant air pollutants, may play an important role as adjuvant factors in the development of various respiratory symptoms. (Viegi et al., 1991) . Similar studies in China have scarcely counted indoor air pollution as important and mainly focus on the health effects of ambient air pollution from urban areas, traffic exhaust and occupational exposure. Now, more than 70 percent of China’s populations also live in rural areas and some of them have quite poor living conditions, where respiratory diseases are the leading cause of death. The exposure-response relationships at concentrations of hundreds of μg/m, which are typical of indoor environments in some developing countries (e.g. China), are relatively unknown, so we need to assess this relation at exposure levels typical of these * Contact author email: [email protected] Proceedings: Indoor Air 2002