Evaluation of health risks associated with exposure to volatile organic compounds from household fuel combustion in southern India

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from household cook-fuel use are a major public health concern in low and middle income countries (LMICs), but health risk assessments have largely been based on measurements of fine particulate matter. We report results from cooking period measurements of 21 non-methane VOCs (NMVOCs) and estimated lifetime cancer risk for women cooks in the Tamil Nadu Air Pollution and Health Effects (TAPHE) cohort in Southern India. We enrolled 112 (56 biomass, 23 kerosene and 33 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) using) TAPHE households to perform kitchen area measurements during the cooking period. VOC samples were collected on mixed-bed sorbent thermal desorption tubes using low-volume air samplers and analyzed using automated thermal desorption on a GC-MS system. Pentafluorobenzene, 1,4-difluorobenzene and chlorobenzene-d5 were used as internal standards that provided recoveries ranging from 81.7% to 119.9%. Total VOC concentrations were 4617 µg/m3, 2839 µg/m3 and 1639 µg/m3 while total BTEXS (i.e. benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p-xylene, o-xylene and styrene) concentrations were 139 µg/m3,121 µg/m3 and 245 µg/m3 among biomass, LPG and kerosene using households, respectively. Sampling season, type of food cooked and kitchen ventilation were significantly associated with measured total NMVOC concentrations. Lifetime cancer risks were estimated to be 2.93 × 10−3, 1.55 × 10−4 and 8.18 × 10−5, for biomass, kerosene and LPG fuel users, respectively with 1,2,3-trichloropropane, benzene, 1,4-dichlorobenze, 1,2-dibromoethane and chloroform contributing maximally to excess cancer risks. Health risk assessments for women cooks in LMICs should be expanded to include NMVOCs as these risks may not be adequately addressed through measurements of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution alone.