Household Air Pollution: An Update from Latin America b y Kirk R. Smith at the Pan American Health Organization, Washington DC, July 2, 2012.
Bottom Lines
- We understand the risks of combustion particles not only from a large number of studies in households, but also from studies of outdoor air pollution, secondhand smoke, and active smoking.
- Over time, we can expect that nearly every effect found in smokers will be found from household smoke, but a lower risk levels.
- We no longer refer to it as “indoor” air pollution because the exposures occur not only inside, butaround the house, down the street, and indeed regionally – “secondhand cook smoke”
What to do
- Will take a new type of research and development, however, both sophisticated and rigorous, to develop and test the interventions in ways to convince the health community
- And completely different levels of funding, for example the kinds of large intervention trials done for vaccines, water/sanitation, bednets, etc. – $10s of millions each
