Abstract
Majority of India’s rural population depends on biomass burning for cooking and heating purposes on traditional cook stoves called Chullah which results into indoor air pollution. The sampling for this study was carried out in two villages of India viz. Budhwada, Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) and Baggi, Himachal Pradesh (H.P.). Both the regions are significantly different in terms of culture, traditions, topography and daily practices and hence this study helped in understanding the contrast between these regions. The concentrations of carbonaceous aerosols viz. OC (Organic Carbon) and EC (Elemental Carbon) were evaluated for different fuel use in four different houses of each village. Introducing the concept of soft approaches, the residents were asked to bring certain changes in their practices by cooking either with solid biomass or Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as fuel. The overall average concentration of OC was found to be higher for Budhwada (M.P.) at 124.34 ± 34.68 µg/m3 than at Baggi, (H.P.) with value 105.26 ± 35.63 µg/m3 whereas the reverse was true for the average concentration of EC with value 62.98 ± 20.75 µg/m3 at Baggi, (H.P.) and 55.51 ± 15.51 µg/m3 at Budhwada (M.P.). The average OC and EC concentrations from solid biomass fuel (dung cake) burning at Budhwada (M.P.) was respectively higher by 56.14% and 33.57% as compared to the LPG usage. Similarly, in Baggi (H.P.) village with LPG usage, a significant reduction was observed in OC and EC concentrations (76.69% and 70.10% respectively) when compared with fuelwood burning. House-wise and time-wise variations of carbonaceous aerosols at both the sites confirmed that their concentrations are lower in houses with greater ventilation and higher in cooking times (morning and evening). In Budhwada (M.P.), the concentrations of K+, Ca2+ and SO42- ions decreased significantly from dung cake to LPG use by 67.91%, 76.98% and 51.85% respectively. In Baggi (H.P.), K+ ion concentration was decreased by 63.4% from fuelwood to LPG use. A questionnaire survey conducted on the residents also corroborated the above findings where the residents agreed that LPG use has health benefits over solid biomass fuel usage but the challenges such as supply of LPG into rural interiors, financial feasibility, etc. were of serious concern. Also, changing the contemporary mindset of rural population is a challenging task.
Highlights
In many countries majority of the people are spending more than 80-90% of their time indoors which is making it a serious concern to be taken into consideration.[1]
Results & Discussions Variation of elemental carbon (EC) and Organic carbon (OC) in households Time-Wise Variation All the houses were monitored to record the temporal variation in a day to account for cooking periods in morning (M) and evening (Ev) and non-cooking periods in afternoon (Af) and night (N)
In all the houses, few of the cooking time samples (M,Ev) are having low concentrations which is because Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is being used for cooking
Summary
In many countries majority of the people are spending more than 80-90% of their time indoors which is making it a serious concern to be taken into consideration.[1]. In the developing countries of the world, indoor air pollution in rural areas is causing severe risk, as here the population dependent on traditional biofuels (dung cake, charcoal, fuelwood, crop residue, etc.) for cooking and heating is as high as 3.5 billion people.[7,8,9,10] In India, around 86% people in rural and 24% in urban areas , are using local biomass such as dung cake, wood and crop residue.[11,12] State wise in India, the highest users of biomass fuel are in Bihar followed by Uttar Pradesh. The same microenvironment is used for other activities such as cooking, sleeping, etc This adds on to the extra exposure of the residents to indoor air pollution.[13, 14]
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