OBJECTIVES Respiratory tract infections (RTI) are one of the leading causes of under-five mortality in Bangladesh. Solid biomass fuels are the main source of domestic fuel used for cooking across Bangladesh, leading to smoke and pollution exposure in the home. This article aims to identify risk factors for RTI among children aged under five years in Bangladesh with a particular focus on the hou...

INTRODUCTION Few studies have investigated the relationship between dietary pattern and household food insecurity. The objective of the present analysis was to describe the food consumption patterns and to relate these with the prevalence of food insecurity in the context of a rural community. METHODOLOGY Three hundred and seven (307) randomly selected households in Kilosa district participat...

Household Air Pollution (HAP) from biomass cooking fuels is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in low-income settings worldwide. In Nepal the use of open stoves with solid biomass fuels is the primary method of domestic cooking. To assess patterns of domestic air pollution we performed continuous measurement of carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate Matter (PM2.5) in 12 biomass fuel househo...

The objective of this study was to develop a new method named the "one-week salt estimation method" that could estimate an individual's salt intake and the sources of salt in the diet, and to evaluate this new method with a 24-h urine collection. The new method estimates salt intake from: (1) household cooking by weighing the family salt container and other high-salt condiments or sauces at the...

BACKGROUND More than 3 billion of the world's population are affected by household air pollution from relying on unprocessed solid fuels for heating and cooking. Household air pollution is harmful to human health, climate, and environment. Sustained uptake and use of cleaner cooking technologies and fuels are proposed as solutions to this problem. In this paper, we present our study protocol ai...

The use of solid biomass fuels in cookstoves has been associated with chronic health impacts that disproportionately affect women worldwide. Solid fuel stoves that use wood, plant matter, and cow dung are commonly used for household cooking in rural Bangladesh. This study investigates the immediate effects of acute elevated cookstove emission exposures on pulmonary function. Pulmonary function ...

BACKGROUND Around 2.4 billion people use traditional biomass fuels for household cooking or heating. In 2006, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded emissions from household coal combustion are a Group 1 carcinogen, while those from biomass were categorised as 2A due to epidemiologic limitations. This review updates the epidemiologic evidence and provides risk estimate...

Background: In Nepal, about 75% people rely on wood and other biomass fuels for cooking. The majority of Nepali families cook on a traditional stove, an open fire in the kitchen resulting in indoor air pollution, one of the key risk factors for Acute Lower Respiratory Infection (ALRI) among under-five children.The study aimed at exploring the association of indoor air pollution due to use of tr...

BACKGROUND Acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) are a leading cause of death among African children under five. A significant proportion of these are attributable to household air pollution from solid fuel use. METHODS We assessed the relationship between cooking practices and ALRI in pooled datasets of Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2000 and 2011 in countries of sub-Sa...

Household air pollution (HAP) and chronic HIV infection are each associated with significant respiratory morbidity. Little is known about relationships between HAP and respiratory symptoms among people living with HIV. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between cooking fuel type and chronic respiratory symptoms in study participants from the Uganda AIDS Rural Treatm...