Exposure levels to PM2.5 and black carbon for people with disabilities in rural homes of Colombia.

Indoor exposure to air pollutants emitted by solid fuels used for cooking or heating homes remains as a problem to solve. The most affected people are newborns, mothers, children, and people with disabilities, due to the time they spend at home. This study is the first in a rural area of South America, which measures indoor air pollutants (PM2.5 and black carbon) in different environments, inhabited by people with disabilities. The research was supported through a sociodemographic characterization, a methodology useful for future studies, continuous monitoring for 72 h of pollutants, and emission sources, cooking habits, and pre-existing diseases were identified. The primary sources of emissions are improved wood-burning stoves and their chimney. In households where firewood is used, the average concentrations of PM2.5 were the highest (between 10.9 and 3302.5 µg/m3), as were the average concentrations of BC (average 72 h between 2.6 and 51.2 µg/m3) compared with the houses that use gas (average 72 h between 2.6 and 6 µg/m3). In 57% of the households visited, the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for PM2.5 (25 µg/m3 for 24 h) were exceeded. The results reveal that rural concentrations of BC can be up to 2.5 times higher than those of an urban area with high vehicular traffic and high population density and could be used to establish a baseline that allows the implementation of control mechanisms to reduce pollution of indoor air.