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Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution

In experimental settings, replacing old wood stoves with new wood stoves results in reduced personal exposure to household air pollution. We tested this assumption by measuring PM(2.5) and levoglucosan concentrations inside homes and correlated them with wood stove age. Methods: Thirty homes in the...

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Autores principales: Rahman, Mizanur, Petersen, Hans, Irshad, Hammad, Liu, Congjian, McDonald, Jacob, Sood, Akshay, Meek, Paula M., Tesfaigzi, Yohannes
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9609584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36287895
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10100615
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author Rahman, Mizanur
Petersen, Hans
Irshad, Hammad
Liu, Congjian
McDonald, Jacob
Sood, Akshay
Meek, Paula M.
Tesfaigzi, Yohannes
author_facet Rahman, Mizanur
Petersen, Hans
Irshad, Hammad
Liu, Congjian
McDonald, Jacob
Sood, Akshay
Meek, Paula M.
Tesfaigzi, Yohannes
author_sort Rahman, Mizanur
collection PubMed
description In experimental settings, replacing old wood stoves with new wood stoves results in reduced personal exposure to household air pollution. We tested this assumption by measuring PM(2.5) and levoglucosan concentrations inside homes and correlated them with wood stove age. Methods: Thirty homes in the Albuquerque, NM area were monitored over a seven-day period using in-home particulate monitors placed in a common living area during the winter months. Real-time aerosol monitoring was performed, and filter samples were analyzed gravimetrically to calculate PM(2.5) concentrations and chemically to determine concentrations of levoglucosan. A linear regression model with backward stepwise elimination was performed to determine the factors that would predict household air pollution measures. Results: In this sample, 73.3% of the households used wood as their primary source of heating, and 60% burned daily or almost daily. The mean burn time over the test week was 50 ± 38 h, and only one household burned wood 24/day (168 h). The average PM(2.5) concentration (standard deviation) for the 30 homes during the seven-day period was 34.6 µg/m(3) (41.3 µg/m(3)), and median (min, max) values were 15.5 µg/m(3) (7.3 µg/m(3), 193 µg/m(3)). Average PM(2.5) concentrations in 30 homes ranged from 0–15 μg/m(3) to >100 μg/m(3). Maximum PM(2.5) concentrations ranged from 100–200 μg/m(3) to >3000 μg/m(3). The levoglucosan levels showed a linear correlation with the total PM(2.5) collected by the filters (R(2) = 0.92). However, neither mean nor peak PM(2.5) nor levoglucosan levels were correlated with the age (10.85 ± 8.54 years) of the wood stove (R(2) ≤ 0.07, p > 0.23). The final adjusted linear regression model showed that average PM(2.5) was associated with reports of cleaning the flue with a beta estimate of 35.56 (3.47–67.65) and R(2) = 0.16 (p = 0.04). Discussion: Cleaning the flue and not the wood stove age was associated with household air pollution indices. Education on wood stove maintenance and safe burning practices may be more important in reducing household air pollution than the purchase of new stoves.
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spelling pubmed-96095842022-10-28 Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution Rahman, Mizanur Petersen, Hans Irshad, Hammad Liu, Congjian McDonald, Jacob Sood, Akshay Meek, Paula M. Tesfaigzi, Yohannes Toxics Article In experimental settings, replacing old wood stoves with new wood stoves results in reduced personal exposure to household air pollution. We tested this assumption by measuring PM(2.5) and levoglucosan concentrations inside homes and correlated them with wood stove age. Methods: Thirty homes in the Albuquerque, NM area were monitored over a seven-day period using in-home particulate monitors placed in a common living area during the winter months. Real-time aerosol monitoring was performed, and filter samples were analyzed gravimetrically to calculate PM(2.5) concentrations and chemically to determine concentrations of levoglucosan. A linear regression model with backward stepwise elimination was performed to determine the factors that would predict household air pollution measures. Results: In this sample, 73.3% of the households used wood as their primary source of heating, and 60% burned daily or almost daily. The mean burn time over the test week was 50 ± 38 h, and only one household burned wood 24/day (168 h). The average PM(2.5) concentration (standard deviation) for the 30 homes during the seven-day period was 34.6 µg/m(3) (41.3 µg/m(3)), and median (min, max) values were 15.5 µg/m(3) (7.3 µg/m(3), 193 µg/m(3)). Average PM(2.5) concentrations in 30 homes ranged from 0–15 μg/m(3) to >100 μg/m(3). Maximum PM(2.5) concentrations ranged from 100–200 μg/m(3) to >3000 μg/m(3). The levoglucosan levels showed a linear correlation with the total PM(2.5) collected by the filters (R(2) = 0.92). However, neither mean nor peak PM(2.5) nor levoglucosan levels were correlated with the age (10.85 ± 8.54 years) of the wood stove (R(2) ≤ 0.07, p > 0.23). The final adjusted linear regression model showed that average PM(2.5) was associated with reports of cleaning the flue with a beta estimate of 35.56 (3.47–67.65) and R(2) = 0.16 (p = 0.04). Discussion: Cleaning the flue and not the wood stove age was associated with household air pollution indices. Education on wood stove maintenance and safe burning practices may be more important in reducing household air pollution than the purchase of new stoves. MDPI 2022-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9609584/ /pubmed/36287895 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10100615 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Rahman, Mizanur
Petersen, Hans
Irshad, Hammad
Liu, Congjian
McDonald, Jacob
Sood, Akshay
Meek, Paula M.
Tesfaigzi, Yohannes
Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution
title Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution
title_full Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution
title_fullStr Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution
title_full_unstemmed Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution
title_short Cleaning the Flue in Wood-Burning Stoves Is a Key Factor in Reducing Household Air Pollution
title_sort cleaning the flue in wood-burning stoves is a key factor in reducing household air pollution
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9609584/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36287895
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics10100615
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