Abstract
Residential combustion of fuels, especially solid, for cooking, heating and other activities generates high level emissions that considerably contribute to indoor and outdoor air pollutants concentrations, which adversely affect human health and are likely to influence heath expenditures. We used the system General Method of Moments (GMM) technique to examine the role of residential combustion (proxied by: particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions) in determining health expenditures while controlling for ambient air pollutants emissions from the other categories such as transportation, manufacturing industries and construction, and others. We employed data covering the period 1995–2010 in 44 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Health expenditures are categorized into per capita, public and private out-of-pocket; and we run three separate regressions according to the categories. The findings indicate that residential sector combustion was significantly associated with higher health expenditures, especially the out-of-pocket compared with other categories. Moreover, PM2.5 is found to have the highest impact on health expenditures. The implementation of effective public health and environmental health policies that encourage the access and use of cleaner fuels or improved cook stoves in SSA would be associated with not only a reduction in healthcare expenditures but also with other health and socio-economic benefits.
Highlights
Residential sector combustion, especially of solid fuels such as coal and wood, dung, crop waste, and other agricultural residues for cooking, heating, lighting and other activities is a significant source of air pollutants emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa
The majority of these people are living in rural areas where they do not have access to modern forms of energy. Inefficient burning of these solid fuels using traditional cooking stoves or in an open fire generates smoke that contains various and important amounts of toxic pollutants. These pollutants include carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10 ), nitrogen oxide (NOx ) and sulphur dioxide (SO2 ), which constitute a threat to the health of people, women and young children who spend most of their time in the household [2] where exposure to concentrations of air pollutants from residential emissions is high
After running the regressions using emissions data from all the categories, we found that the residential sector was significantly associated with higher health expenditures
Summary
Residential sector combustion, especially of solid fuels such as coal (fossil fuel) and wood, dung, crop waste, and other agricultural residues (biomass fuels) for cooking, heating, lighting and other activities is a significant source of air pollutants emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of these people are living in rural areas where they do not have access to modern forms of energy Inefficient burning of these solid fuels using traditional cooking stoves or in an open fire generates smoke that contains various and important amounts of toxic pollutants. These pollutants include carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10 ), nitrogen oxide (NOx ) and sulphur dioxide (SO2 ), which constitute a threat to the health of people, women and young children who spend most of their time in the household [2] where exposure to concentrations of air pollutants from residential emissions is high. PM10 means particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm while
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