{"title":"Urban-Rural Differences in Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality: A Comparative Study in Bangladesh.","authors":"Masamitsu Kurata, Akira Hibiki, Kazushi Takahashi, Yutaka Matsumi","doi":"10.3390/toxics13060509","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Health hazards caused by indoor air pollution (IAP) remain a global concern, especially in developing countries. IAP has complex mechanisms related to outdoor air pollution (OAP) and various other factors, and their relationship needs to be clarified to examine effective policies. We conducted an indoor and outdoor air monitoring survey in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas in Bangladesh, one of the countries with the most severe air pollution. The results show that IAP is more severe in urban households than in rural households, with a five-fold difference in daily indoor PM2.5 concentration between 117 μg/m3 and 22 μg/m3, respectively. Regression analysis reveals that IAP is strongly associated with OAP and is hardly affected by solid fuels used in well-ventilated outside kitchens. Our findings support the view that the mitigation of IAP in developing countries can be achieved not only through a transition to clean fuels, which often entails substantial costs, but also through more practical and accessible alternatives, such as the use of outdoor kitchens, electric fans, and careful management of behaviors such as indoor smoking and mosquito coil use.</p>","PeriodicalId":23195,"journal":{"name":"Toxics","volume":"13 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12197357/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Toxics","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics13060509","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Health hazards caused by indoor air pollution (IAP) remain a global concern, especially in developing countries. IAP has complex mechanisms related to outdoor air pollution (OAP) and various other factors, and their relationship needs to be clarified to examine effective policies. We conducted an indoor and outdoor air monitoring survey in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas in Bangladesh, one of the countries with the most severe air pollution. The results show that IAP is more severe in urban households than in rural households, with a five-fold difference in daily indoor PM2.5 concentration between 117 μg/m3 and 22 μg/m3, respectively. Regression analysis reveals that IAP is strongly associated with OAP and is hardly affected by solid fuels used in well-ventilated outside kitchens. Our findings support the view that the mitigation of IAP in developing countries can be achieved not only through a transition to clean fuels, which often entails substantial costs, but also through more practical and accessible alternatives, such as the use of outdoor kitchens, electric fans, and careful management of behaviors such as indoor smoking and mosquito coil use.
ToxicsChemical Engineering-Chemical Health and Safety
CiteScore
4.50
自引率
10.90%
发文量
681
审稿时长
6 weeks
期刊介绍:
Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal which provides an advanced forum for studies related to all aspects of toxic chemicals and materials. It publishes reviews, regular research papers, and short communications. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in detail. There is, therefore, no restriction on the maximum length of the papers, although authors should write their papers in a clear and concise way. The full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. Electronic files or software regarding the full details of calculations and experimental procedure can be deposited as supplementary material, if it is not possible to publish them along with the text.