Household air pollution and personal exposure to air pollutants in rural China – A review

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) Vol. 237; pp. 625 - 638
• Main Authors: Du, Wei, Li, Xinyue, Chen, Yuanchen, Shen, Guofeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2018
• Subjects: air; air pollutants; air pollution; biogas; carbon monoxide; China; electricity; exposure assessment; guidelines; Household air pollution; human health; Inhalation exposure; liquid petroleum gas; organic carbon; particulates; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Solid fuel; sulfur dioxide; winter; World Health Organization; China; Household air pollution; Solid fuel; Inhalation exposure
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.02.054

Solid fuels, an important source of severe Household Air Pollution (HAP) linked to many adverse health outcomes, has been widely consumed around the world. China consumes large amounts of solid fuels and suffers from serious indoor and outdoor air pollution. Though global HAP issues had been reviewed in previous literatures, peer-reviewed Chinese publications were seldom included in those reviews. We conducted a literature review on the studies of HAP and personal exposure in rural China with inputs from peer-reviewed publications in both English and Chinese. A total of 36,572 articles were retrieved, 294 were read in full text, of which 92 were included in final data extraction and in-depth analysis. Although HAP is a very serious issue in China, studies on either HAP or personal exposure assessment were very limited. From existing studies, levels of air pollutants including carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter (PM), organic carbon, elemental carbon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), etc., in indoor and ambient air were analyzed for their temporal and spatial variations, and the differences across different fuel types were compared. The studies showed that PM and PAHs levels in most rural homes exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese National Standards, especially during the heating season in northern China. Replacing traditional fuels with cleaner ones (such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG), biogas or electricity) was considered as the most appropriate way to mitigate HAP. The daily exposure to PM and PAHs from using LPG, biogas or electricity was considerably lower than that from using traditional solid fuels. However, the level was still higher than the guideline values for PM and PAHs set by WHO to protect human health. To achieve a more effective control, the current data gap need to be closed and suggestions for future research were discussed in this review. [Display omitted] •Still high HAP and personal exposure in rural China.•Replacing solid fuels with cleaner fuels can reduce HAP and personal exposure.•Using portable personal samplers is preferred to evaluate “true” personal exposure.•Provided several recommendations for future research on HAP in rural China. An in-depth review to achieve a comprehensive understanding on the research status and the characteristics of household air pollution and personal exposures to various air pollutants in rural China.