Household Energy, Exposure and Health in China

Abstract

P-318 Abstract: Indoor air pollution from solid fuel use is estimated to be responsible for more than 1.6 million annual deaths worldwide. In China, 60% of the population lives in rural areas, where most people rely on solid fuels for cooking and heating. We investigate the health impact that is associated with household combustion of solid fuels for the Chinese population. The China 2000 Census gives comprehensive data on main cooking fuel in the Chinese households along with population data and other demographic characteristics. In a previous study we estimated, for different demographic groups in Shanxi province in the North of China, the exposure to PM10 using indoor pollution levels in several microclimates and average time activity patterns. We use these exposure estimates, including estimates for biomass users, as typical exposure for the northern population, and make a similar exposure estimate for the southern population. We assume that similar demographic groups in China experience similar exposure. The demographic groups are divided in age/gender, urban/rural north/south and fuel use in the households. Based on the exposure estimates we estimate Population Weighted Exposure (PWE) in the 2871 mainland counties of China, and exposure reduction, ΔPWE, that can be anticipated based on interventions. The interventions that we analyse are replacing solid fuel with clean fuels like gas, district heating and electricity, improving the stoves in use to gain better combustion, and installing a chimney to ensure ventilation. Based on the ΔPWE and dose-response functions we estimate health gains. We expect to find the highest PWE is in the counties with the highest rate of biomass combustion. We also expect to conclude that there is large health gains associated with an improvement in the household fuel situation in China. This work is a screening of the exposure to indoor PM10 in China, and large uncertainties are involved. Nevertheless we think that this screening shows the importance of household fuels as environmental burden for the Chinese population. Detailed studies both of the indoor pollution levels, and the time activity patterns would be interesting future work. More work is also needed to identify the most feasible and cost-efficient abatement measures. The fuel use in China is much more complex than presented here, with multiple fuels in the households. It would also be of great interest to link the current work with emissions related to climate change.