The Influence of Cooking Fuels on Lung Cancer Risk in NepalAbstract Number:1619 Greg Raspanti*, Amir Sapkota Greg Raspanti* University of Maryland, United States, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author and Amir Sapkota University of Maryland, United States, E-mail Address: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author AbstractBackground: Approximately 50% of the global population relies upon biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, crop residue, dung) for cooking and/or heating purposes. Household air pollution (HAP) resulting from the use of these solid fuels is of particular concern, given the range of known adverse human health outcomes resulting in an estimated 4 million deaths annually. The pyrolosis of organic material creates emissions that contain particulate matter, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, and dioxins. In addition, the pyrolosis of coal emits lead, arsenic, and fluorine. Repeated long term exposure to these airborne chemicals is a major concern to the health of people in low income countries, especially women and children. While many epidemiological studies have focused on acute adverse health effects, the influence of HAP on lung cancer risk remains unclear.Methods: A hospital-based case-control study was conducted at the B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Nepal, from November 2009 through December 2012 to recruit 606 cytologically/histologically confirmed lung cancer cases and 606 age and gender matched controls. Standardized questionnaires were used to collect information on socioeconomic and demographic data, residential history, tobacco use, occupational history, and dietary information. We used unconditional logistic regression to compute odds ratios (ORs) and 95% Confidence Intervals (95% CI) adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic confounding variables.Results/Conclusion: Vast majority of study participants reported ‘ever’ using wood for primary cooking and/or heating, limiting the use of this exposure metric. Biological samples are currently being analyzed to quantify the individual level of exposure.Results will be presented using both questionnaire based exposure metrics as well as biomarker based exposure metrics.