‘Alarming health risks from traditional cooking practices’

Tribune News Service

Dipender Manta

Mandi, February 25

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, in collaboration with the Institute National de Recherche et de Sécurité (INRS), France, and the National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), India, have conducted a comprehensive study on the detrimental effects of indoor air pollution resulting from traditional cooking practices in rural kitchens across three Northeast Indian states.

Make LPG more accessible

This research holds practical implications, emphasising the urgent need for rural communities in Northeast India to transition to cleaner cooking methods. Recommendations include making LPG more accessible, improving cook stove programmes, spreading awareness in rural areas, funding local solutions, and organising health camps for rural women. Dr Sayantan Sarkar, Assistant Professor

A research team from IIT-Mandi comprising Bijay Sharma, PhD scholar, and Dr Sayantan Sarkar, Assistant Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and his collaborators analysed the extent and consequences of harmful emissions produced during indoor cooking using firewood and mixed biomass.

“Despite advancements, more than 50% of the rural population in Northeastern India (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Meghalaya) continues to use traditional solid fuels such as firewood and mixed biomass for cooking, leading to the release of significant pollutants into the kitchen air,” the research revealed.

Researchers said the research aimed to gauge the severity and disease burden associated with the use of biomass cooking fuel compared to LPG-based cooking.

“The researchers measured size-resolved concentrations of aerosols, i.e., particles suspended in the air, and toxic trace metals and carcinogenic organic substances bound with it, during cooking with firewood, mixed biomass, and LPG. We modeled the deposition patterns of these particles and associated chemicals in various sections of the human respiratory system. The resulting inhalation exposure to these chemicals during cooking was then calculated,” said Dr Sarkar.

“Utilising this data, we estimated the health impact (disease burden) on the rural Northeastern Indian population, focusing on respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia, and various cancers, using the ‘Potential Years of Life Lost’ (PYLL) metric. This metric estimates the potential number of years lost in a population due to premature death from ill health,” he added.

“The study revealed that exposure to harmful aerosols in firewood/biomass-using kitchens was 2-19 times higher than in LPG-using kitchens, with respiratory deposition ranging from 29 to 79% of the total aerosol concentration. The fraction of population using firewood and mixed biomass faced 2-57 times higher disease burdens than LPG users,” he remarked.

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