Improved and Traditional Biofuel Cookstoves and Respiratory Symptoms among Women in Bangladesh: A Comparative Study.

Indoor air pollution from biomass smoke is now regarded as public health hazard in the developing world, where more than two billion people still rely on the use of solid biomass fuels, which have been shown to produce substantial health-damaging pollutants. Improved cook stove (ICS) reduces indoor air pollution and its health hazards. The aim of the study was to compare the respiratory symptoms between Traditional and Improved Biofuel Cookstove users in rural Bangladesh and to find out that Improved Cookstoves (ICS) users are at lower risk of respiratory symptoms than Traditional Cookstoves (TCS) users. A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted through face to face interview of 78 women using ICS and 115 women using TCS. Majority of the respondents were in the age group of 20-39 years. About 58% ICS users and 66% TCS users were illiterate. Almost 100% of the respondents were wife of household head who were the prime cook. 49% of ICS users and 30% of TCS users had been cooking for 3-4 hours everyday. Most of the households in the study area relied on biofuels (wood, scavenged twigs and grasses, dry leaves, dung and crop residues). It was found that about 28% of the prime cooks in ICS users' households and about 53% of the prime cooks in TCS users' households had been suffering from different respiratory problems at the time of survey. Among the prime cooks who had been suffering from respiratory diseases, about 2% of ICS users and 25% of TCS users had been suffering from morning cough, about 3% if ICS users and 6% of TCS users had been suffering from chest tightness. About 4% in ICS users' and about 14% in TCS users' had complaints of wheezing with dyspnoea; about 2% in ICS users' and about 24% in TCS users' had been suffering from nasal allergy and about 7% in TCS users' and nobody in ICS users' had been suffering from cough for more than 3 months. Statistical tests of significance clearly indicate that significantly more prime cooks in the TCS users' reported respiratory symptoms than prime cooks in ICS users' households.