Women's personal and indoor exposures to PM_2.5 in Mysore, India: Impact of domestic fuel usage

In traditional societies, women are more likely to be adversely affected by exposures to fine particulates from domestic fuel combustion due to their role in the family as the primary cooks. In this study, 24-h gravimetric personal and indoor PM_2.5 exposures were measured for 15 women using kerosene and another 15 women using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as their main cooking fuel in Mysore, India. The women also answered a detailed questionnaire regarding their residential housing characteristics, health status, cooking practices and socioeconomic status. Repeated measurements were obtained during two seasons. The main objective of this study was to determine whether exposures to PM _2.5 differed according to fuel usage patterns. A repeated-measures general linear model (GLM) was used to analyze the data. Women using kerosene as their primary cooking fuel had significantly higher exposures. During summer, the arithmetic mean (± standard error) for kerosene users personal exposure was 111±13 and 71±15 μg m^-3 for LPG users. Kerosene users had higher exposures in winter (177±21 μg m ^-3) compared to summer exposures. However, for LPG users there was no difference in their seasonal geometric mean exposures at 71±13 μg m^-3. Indoor concentrations followed similar patterns. In summer, kerosene-using households had an arithmetic mean concentration of 98±9 μg m^-3 and LPG-using households had an arithmetic mean concentration of 71±9 μg m^-3. Winter concentrations were significantly higher than summer concentrations for kerosene users (155±13 μg m^-3). Again, LPG users showed only slightly higher indoor concentrations (73±6 μg m^-3) than kerosene users. Socioeconomic status, age, season and income were significant predictors of cooking fuel choice.