Abstract
Indoor air pollution caused by the indoor burning of solid biomass fuels has been associated with Acute Respiratory Infections such as pneumonia amongst children of less than five years of age. Behavioural change interventions have been identified as a potential strategy to reduce child indoor air pollution exposure, yet very little is known about the impact of behavioural change interventions to reduce indoor air pollution. Even less is known about how behaviour change theory has been incorporated into indoor air pollution behaviour change interventions. A review of published studies spanning 1983–2013 suggests that behavioural change strategies have the potential to reduce indoor air pollution exposure by 20%–98% in laboratory settings and 31%–94% in field settings. However, the evidence is: (1) based on studies that are methodologically weak; and (2) have little or no underlying theory. The paper concludes with a call for more rigorous studies to evaluate the role of behavioural change strategies (with or without improved technologies) to reduce indoor air pollution exposure in developing countries as well as interventions that draw more strongly on existing behavioural change theory and practice.
Highlights
Half the world’s population are reliant on biomass fuels such as wood, cow dung and crop residues for their domestic energy requirements [1]
The study reported that the upside-down ignition method in a commonly used burning appliance—where fires are ignited with coal at the bottom, paper/wood kindle above the coal and a small amount of coal on top—reduced PM10 by 80%–90% in laboratory testing and by approximately 50%
A study [30] found that compared to an open fire, improving an open fire by burning fuels on a raised grate 10mm off the ground was associated with 20% lower TSP and 41% lower carbon monoxide (CO) emissions compared to a wood fire burned on the ground and comparable, and sometimes better than, emissions from improved cook stoves per burning
Summary
Half the world’s population are reliant on biomass fuels such as wood, cow dung and crop residues for their domestic energy requirements [1]. The indoor burning of biomass fuel releases smoke that contains numerous pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM) and other organic compounds into the living environment [2]. Res. Public Health 2014, 11 pollution is associated with 1.5 million deaths annually and 2.7% of the global burden of disease [3]
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