Protecting children from indoor air pollution exposure through outdoor cooking in rural South Africa
Barnes, B.; Mathee, A.; Bruce, N.; Thomas, L.
Boiling Point 52: 11-13
2006
Document Number: 241031
The effectiveness of promoting outdoor cooking in a poor rural South African community to reduce ill health caused by kitchen smoke was examined. The study involved monitoring households before and after intervention amongst an intervention group in one village (98 households) and comparing these households to a control group in a village 40 km away (121 households) that did not receive the intervention. Baseline data were collected in August 2003 and post-intervention data were collected in August 2004. In the intervention group, the number of households that burned outdoors increased from 24.5% at baseline to 45.9% at follow-up. In the control group, the number of households burning outdoors increased from 25.6% at baseline to 42.2% at follow-up. In terms of child exposure, children living in outdoor-burning homes showed significantly lower (88-90%) levels of exposure to carbon monoxide compared to indoor-burning homes.