Indoor Pollution Linked to Headaches

In Lucknow, poor indoor quality led to over 10 ailments including cough and wheezing, dry throat, shortness of breath, itchy eyes and more.

Health Risks Due to Indoor Air Pollution

The findings of the research presented recently at an international conference at the University College of Stockholm, Sweden, found headache as the most common symptom as reported by 60 percent women, while in children it was stuffy nose as reported by 62 percent. The participants included 560 women from three microenvironments.

While 434 (77. 5 percent) women were from planned residential areas, 107 (19.1 percent) were from the industrial belt of the city, whereas 19 (3.4 percent) were from the commercial belt of the city.

The study was done using a real time portable air sampler that was placed in the living area to study the variation pattern and was placed at least two meters away from doors and walls of the room.

It found the concentration of PM 2.5 pollutants indoor to be almost six times higher than the WHO standards.

Research scholar Samridhi Dwivedi said the study also found 51.1 percent of women consciously unaware of household air pollution. The study found that the deposition of particles in women was the highest in the head region (61.1 percent) followed by pulmonary (21.1 percent) and tracheobronchial region (17.3 percent).

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Among 408 children, who were part of the study, 62 percent complained of a stuffy nose, followed by dry/sore throat reported by 30.6 percent children.

The study found that in most of the cases, these symptoms were more prevalent during October and November, followed by February and April.

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Source-IANS