The Project File Details
- Name: ASSESMENT OF CARBON MONOXIDE FROM BIOMASS BURNING IN RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN ADAMAWA STATE, NORTHEASTERN NIGERIA
- Type: PDF and MS Word (DOC)
- Size: [1.94 MB]
- Length: [41] Pages
ABSTRACT
Indoor air pollution (IAP) kills 4 million people worldwide, particularly in developing countries where many people rely heavily on biomass for energy. Globally, 3 billion people use biomass fuel for cooking and heating. Burning biomass emits carbon monoxide (CO) and other pollutants. Hence, IAP is the leading cause of non-communicable diseases in the world. Women and children suffer most of the burden of IAP because they are usually responsible for cooking.
In a rural, poor community in Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria, I assessed risks to human health from biomass burning. I used structured questionnaires to interview heads-of-households about their household composition, cooking habits, cooking fuel, and kitchen area. Using a CO data logger, I also measured CO emissions during cooking for 16 households with indoor kitchens. The number of doors, windows, and gaps were counted and measured to assess ventilation and subjectively categorized into a ventilation index.
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My results showed that adult women (n =134) were mainly responsible for cooking in the Bole community, and mean number of times residents cooked per day was 2.25 ± 0.55. The primary fuel source for all but four households was wood. Most households had outdoor cooking areas (n = 101). Mean CO reading (111.9 ± 41.4 ppm) exceeded World Health Organization recommended safe levels. Ventilation appeared to be important for reducing CO concentrations during cooking. This research reinforces that indoor pollution from biomass burning poses a risk to the human health and contributes to deforestation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATION…………………………………………………………………………………………..ii
READERS’ APPROVAL………………………………………………………………………………..iii
DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………………………….iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………………v
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………………….vi
LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………………………………..x
LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………………………xi
CHAPTER 1……………………………………………………………………………………………………1
INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………………………..1
Biomass use………………………………………………………………………………………………….2
Health impacts related to IAP…………………………………………………………………………….3
Vulnerable populations…………………….…………………………………..……..4
Incomplete combustion and pollutants…………………………………………………5
Case of Nigeria ……………………………………………………………………………………………..10
HYPOTHESES …………………………………………………………………………………………….11
AIMS & OBJECTIVES ………………………………………………………………………………….11
CHAPTER 2 …………………………………………………………………………………………………12
MATERIALS & METHODS ………………………………………………………………………….13
Study Site ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..13
Sampling …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12
CHAPTER 3 …………………………………………………………………………………………………15
RESULTS ……………………………………………………………………………………………………15
CHAPTER 4 …………………………………………………………………………………………………25
DISCUSSION ………………………………………………………………………………………………25
CHAPTER 5………………………………………………………………….………28
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………28
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………
CHAPTER ONE
Global air quality is worsening every day due to both outdoor and indoor pollution. Much attention is directed to IAP presently, as it is considered a leading cause of respiratory diseases that cause the premature deaths of 4 million people around the world (WHO, 2016). Indoor air pollution is the emission of harmful substances in living area. Sources of IAP include materials used in furnishings, semi-volatile, and volatile compounds released by building materials, insecticides, and biomass fuels (mainly cow dung, straws, crop residues, woods, and twigs) (Zhang & Smith, 2003). The largest contributor of IAP in developing country is biomass burning. Biomass burning is the combustion of living and dead vegetation (Cole, 2001). This process emits pollutants, which gets trapped when people cook indoors hence promotes respiratory diseases (WHO, 2016).
About 7.7% of global mortality is due to IAP (WHO, 2016). In middle- and low-income countries, 10% of mortality is caused by indoor pollution. Whereas the same risk factor is 0.2% in developed countries (WHO, 2016). IAP emitted from the burning of biomass poses a greater risk to human health than any other source of pollution. Hence, mortality and morbidity in developing countries are heavily attributed to burning biomass fuel. The reason is some people, most especially women in the developing countries use substandard stoves that produces smoke, which gets trapped when used in areas with poor ventilation (Bruce, et al., 2015). Chronic exposure to smoke lowers the body’s immunity and eventually lead to respiratory diseases (Bruce, Perez-Padilla, & Albalak, 2000).
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Although the health impact of IAP is well studied, there has been limited intervention that will bring effective solutions based on these findings. Some of the limitations are due to technology, behavior, and lack of infrastructure.
Biomass use
People use biomass as fuel for cooking and heating all over the world (Fig.1). More than 2.4 billion of the global population relies on biomass fuel for cooking and heating (WHO, 2016). In addition, most biomass users are in developing countries. In Africa, 78% of household energy is from biomass fuel (WHO, 2012). Clean source of energy is important, but poverty and inadequate power supply have made clean energy beyond the reach of people living in developing countries. Therefore, people are forced to look for cheap alternative sources of fuel, regardless of consequences on human health (NPC & ICF, 2014).
In addition to Africa, Asian countries such China, India, and Nepal also have large percentage of people using biomass fuel. In China, 80% of the rural population derives 60%-80% of its domestic energy from biomass fuel (World Energy Outlook, 2006). In India and Nepal, 72% and 88% of their respective daily fuel use is derived from biomass (Ranabhat, et al., 2015; Joon, et al., 2014)
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