Combustion-generated contaminants - Indoor Environmental Quality - page 69

Table 3.2 Indoor Airborne Particulate Matter (TSP) Concentrations Associated with

Biomass Cooking in Developing Countries
Location/report year Measurement conditions PM concentration ( µ g/m

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)

Papua New Guinea
1968

Overnight/floor level 200-4900

1975 Overnight/sitting level 200-9000

India
1982

Cooking with wood 15,800

Cooking with dung 18,000

Cooking with charcoal 5500

1988 Cooking, measured near ceiling 4000-21,000

Nepal
1986

Cooking with wood 8800

China
1987

Cooking with wood 2600

Gambia
1988 24 hours 1000-2500

Kenya
1987 24 hours 1200-1900

Source: From Smith, K.R., Environment, 30, 28, 1988. With permission.

ulation density is high, wood supplies are limited due to deforestation, and
coal is abundant.
Most cooking stoves are simple pits, U-shaped structures made of mud,
or consist of three pieces of brick. Most indoor cooking fires are not vented
to the outdoor environment; only a small fraction have enclosed combustion
chambers with flues.
Studies on exposure concentrations in households using biomass and
other fuels for cooking in poorly ventilated environments have been con-
ducted over the past three decades. Much of the focus of these studies has
been the measurement of indoor concentrations of particulate matter, which
is present in enormously high concentrations (based on North American,
European, and Japanese ambient air quality standards). Indoor air concen-
trations of what is presumably total suspended particulate matter (TSP;
particle size range of 0.1 to 100 m) are summarized for rural households

in a number of developing countries in Table 3.2 . Personal daily exposures
to particulate matter while using biomass cooking in India and Nepal are
summarized in Table 3.3 . What is notable in both cases is that daily indoor
exposure to particulate matter in biomass-using households, particularly
among adult women and young children, is significantly greater than that
specified by ambient air quality standards for TSP (75

µ

µ g/m annual geo-

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metric mean; 260 24-hour average not to be exceeded more than once

per year) used in the U.S. until 1988 (since changed to a PM

µ g/m

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standard of

10

50 µ g/m annual arithmetic mean; 150 µ g/m 24-hour average) and World

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Health Organization (WHO) PM guidelines (40 to 60 µ g/m annual aver-

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10

age; 100 to 150 µ g/m 24-hour average). In these households, daily indoor

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