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a Environmental Health
Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7360, USA, b Department of
Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, c Pan-American Health
Organization, Mexico City, Mexico, d Public
Health Medicine, University of Liverpool, UK
Correspondence to: Dr K R Smith krksmith{at}uclink4.berkeley.edu
BACKGROUND
A
critical review was conducted of the quantitative literature linking
indoor air pollution from household use of biomass fuels with acute
respiratory infections in young children, which is focused on, but not
confined to, acute lower respiratory infection and pneumonia in
children under two years in less developed countries. Biomass in the
form of wood, crop residues, and animal dung is used in more than two
fifths of the world's households as the principal fuel.
METHODSMedline
and other electronic databases were used, but it was also necessary to
secure literature from colleagues in less developed countries where not
all publications are yet internationally indexed.
RESULTSThe
studies of indoor air pollution from household biomass fuels are
reasonably consistent and, as a group, show a strong significant
increase in risk for exposed young children compared with those living
in households using cleaner fuels or being otherwise less exposed. Not
all studies were able to adjust for confounders, but most of those that
did so found that strong and significant risks remained.
CONCLUSIONSIt
seems that the relative risks are likely to be significant for the
exposures considered here. Since acute lower respiratory infection is
the chief cause of death in children in less developed countries, and
exacts a larger burden of disease than any other disease category for
the world population, even small additional risks due to such a
ubiquitous exposure as air pollution have important public health
implications. In the case of indoor air pollution in households using
biomass fuels, the risks also seem to be fairly strong, presumably
because of the high daily concentrations of pollutants found in such
settings and the large amount of time young children spend with their
mothers doing household cooking. Given the large vulnerable populations
at risk, there is an urgent need to conduct randomised trials to
increase confidence in the cause-effect relationship, to quantify the
risk more precisely, to determine the degree of reduction in exposure
required to significantly improve health, and to establish the
effectiveness of interventions.
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