Cost Effective Technological Intervention to Mitigate the Effects of Indoor Air Pollution in Rural Kitchens

More than 87% of energy demand in Nepal is met by traditional biomass fuel and 75% share of this comes from fuel wood. Smoke from burning of this fuel wood in traditional stoves is one of the major causes of death and disease in Nepal. The situation is even worst where the airborne effluent from burning of fuel wood is allowed to flow and remain in the living rooms due to building architecture and lack of proper ventilation The study explored the relationship between indoor-outdoor air in terms of total suspended particulate (TSP) concentration and search for the technological intervention to mitigate indoor air pollution in households burning fuel wood in traditional stoves. Study showed that the average TSP concentration was higher in indoor environment than in outdoor environment. The gross average indoor-outdoor TSP ratio was found to be 1.38 and there existed a positive linear correlation between average outdoor-indoor TSP concentrations with correlation coefficient of 0.903. The 24 hour weighted TSP average in the kitchen was found to be much higher than the national ambient air quality standard-Nepal (NAAQS-Nepal) and USEPA standard. The 24-hour weighted TSP average decreased with increasing ventilation coefficient both in kitchen and living room. Mechanical ventilation as well as passive approaches, quantified as ventilation coefficient is also evaluated. Ventilation coefficients greater than 0.15 and 0.077 are recommended for the kitchen and living room respectively, when the later is situated directly above the kitchen as is typical in the rural houses, to keep the indoor air pollution well below NAAQS-Nepal.

Keywords: Nepal, indoor air pollution, ventilation coefficient, traditional stoves