Indoor air pollution from cooking with biomass fuels is a major cause of chronic bronchitis among women in a rural district of Rwanda

In the developing world, households are using biomass fuel for cooking and heating this leads to high concentration of toxic pollutants indoor causing several respiratory diseases. The aim of this study was to assess the association between biomass fuels and chronic bronchitis among women leaving in a rural district of Rwanda.Methods: A prospective study was conducted for a period of 15 months between March 2015 and May 2016 and all patients willing to participate were recruited from test villages selected randomly in the district of Gisagara. Obtained data were compared with those from control villages from the distric Huye. 448 women aged 20 years and above were recruited for the study, among them 302 were using biomass fuel for cooking and there was a control group of 146 age-matched women who were using either liquefied gas petroleum or had not been cooking the last 3 years.Results: Out of 448 women recruited for the study, 12 (2.6%) were excluded for various reasons, among them 298 (68.3%) were using biomass fuel for cooking and 138 (31.7%) belonged to the control group. Using our case definition of chronic bronchitis the overall prevalence was 10.7% of all participants. Chronic bronchitis was significantly associated with cooking indoor (OR: 8.14; 95%, CI 3.45 to 16.84), age (OR: 2.32; 95% CI 1.93 to 3.59) and education level (OR: (OR: 1.66; 95% CI , 0.90 to 3.11).Conclusion: This study showed that cooking indoor with biomass fuel, age and the level of education are the main risk factors for chronic bronchitis

Respiratory symptoms amongst females in a fishing settlement in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Background: Approximately half of the earth's population in the rural areas of developing countries uses energy obtained from biomass burning, which is harmful to people. Objectives: This study is aimed at determining which respiratory symptoms can be associated with biomass burning amongst fish smokers in the Oyorokoto fishing settlement. Method: A community-based, cross-sectional questionnaire, which employed a modified cluster sampling technique, was used. Results: A total of 300 subjects were recruited for the study, of which 210 (70%) were fish smokers. The mean age was 31.46 ± 13.03 years, with the majority (42.0%) having only primary school education. The prevalence of respiratory symptoms amongst the subjects was 86.7%, the most frequent of which were catarrh (30.48%) and a cough (28.57%). The respiratory symptom occurring least frequently was breathlessness (2.38%). The symptoms most often experienced during fish smoking were those of catarrh (75.5%) and sneezing (73.0%), whereas breathlessness occurred the least, in only 7 (3.3%) of the participants. Sneezing stopped in 64.2% of the subjects after fish smoking had ceased. Most of the fish smoking took place indoors. Conclusion: Health promotion featuring preventive interventions, such as the wearing of face-masks and the use of modern fish smoking methods, which is associated with fewer health risks, is essential to improving the quality of life of fish smokers. The government's provision of certain social services, including better education opportunities for the young, is advocated, and should be especially targeted at improving the lot of the girl child