Hypertensive and toxicological health risk among women exposed to biomass smoke: A rural Indian scenario

This study shows that exposure to air pollutants from indoor cooking fuel combustion may be associated with elevated Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP), Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP), Heart rate and Body mass index (BMI) in rural women of India. 60 premenopausal women (using solely agriculture residues, wood, dung, straw, leaf) and 30 women (solely using clean fuel, LPG) were recruited for this study. An ethically approved questionnaire was used in the study and health parameters were measured by standard instruments. Eight pollutants were measured by calibrated instruments, applied both in the living room as well as kitchens of test-subjects. The Test-subjects were divided into two groups, LPG users, and biomass users, and the toxicological risk was assessed by measurement of PM2.5 levels in the given indoor environments. The concentrations of all the pollutants were significantly (p < 0.001) higher in biomass users than in LPG using households, except in the case of O-3 (p < 0.403) at the time of cooking. Results highlighted that DBP (p < 0.070), SBP (p < 0.143), Heart rate (p < 0.002) and BMI (p < 0.052) were varied in the two fuel user groups. In the case of biomass fuel user toxicological risk was higher (5.21) than LPG users (0.69). Moreover, Symptoms like asthma (25%), cough (76.67%), dizziness (36.67%), eye irritation (88.33%), and shortness of breath (43.33%) were highly prevalent among biomass users than in LPG users. The study highlighted that Biomass using women are more prone to cardiovascular disease and policies should be formulated for their sustainable health.