+443308187254Perspective Article - Journal of Research in Environmental Science and Toxicology ( 2024) Volume 13, Issue 1
Received: 11-Jan-2024, Manuscript No. JREST-24-124955; Editor assigned: 16-Jan-2024, Pre QC No. JREST-24-124955 (PQ); Reviewed: 30-Jan-2024, QC No. JREST-24-124955; Revised: 07-Feb-2024, Manuscript No. JREST-24-124955 (R); Published: 15-Feb-2024, DOI: 10.14303/2315-5698.2024.74
Long-term exposure to indoor air pollution from cooking fuel combustion is a significant factor in residential building indoor air quality and a risk factor for a number of health-related conditions, particularly respiratory illnesses and Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), which is becoming a more common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide in low and middle income nations.
According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), around 3 billion people use coal, biomass (wood, animal dung and agricultural waste) and kerosene as home fuels globally. The incomplete combustion of these emits toxic chemicals. The climate and human health are negatively impacted by these pollutants. Open cooking fires and conventional solid fuel stoves account for about 20% of global emissions of black carbon, particularly when biomass is used as the fuel source.
Household solid fuel usage accounts for 60%-80% of black carbon emissions in low and middle income countries in Africa and Asia, whereas kerosene use accounts for 270 grammes of black carbon yearly. While carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and particle mass with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM 2.5) have been linked to adverse health outcomes including cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, the incidence of sick building syndrome and lung cancer, incomplete combustion products like black carbon and methane contribute to climate change.
Cooking smoke, which results from burning unprocessed biomass fuels like wood, agricultural waste and dung cakes for cooking and space heating, is a major source of air pollution in many houses in developing nations.
An estimated half of the world's population depends on biomass fuels (wood, agricultural waste and charcoal) for cooking and heating as their main source of the domestic energy and in developing nations, almost 2 billion kilograms of biomass are burned daily.
However, because indoor air quality is governed by intricate dynamic interactions that mostly rely on occupant activity and highly variable building structural characteristics, it is very challenging to characterize the distribution of indoor air quality on a regional scale. Regional weather patterns affect the amounts of certain chemicals, like formaldehyde and biological pollutants, like molds and bacteria, in indoor air. A cursory glance at recent scientific studies, concerns and findings reveals that the choice of cooking fuel has always had an impact on indoor air quality. However, there hasn't been much empirical research done on how relative humidity and other weather related factors interact to affect indoor environmental quality, particularly as it relates to the prevalence of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) among building occupants in Port Harcourt, a sub-humid tropical industrial city. This research aims to fill in this vacuum in the literature.
According to the ecological modernization hypothesis, environmental preservation and economic growth policies can complement one another and create a win-win situation where the two are competing for resources. Clarified how the ecological modernization theory supports the implementation of strict environmental regulations as a beneficial impact on technological innovation and economic efficiency and how, in theory, ecological problems might be resolved in a way that promotes economic growth.
They also quoted who listed four characteristics of ecological modernization theory that are unique to it. The first is a change in the technology to reduce emissions and manage resources more effectively; the second is the belief system that represents an ideology that views environmental protection as a necessary prerequisite for long-term prosperity.
The third characteristic is policy discourses, which place changes in environmental policies within a broad modernist framework and encourage discussion about the formulation of environmental policies with an emphasis on role definition and the identification of social factors that affect the formulation and application of environmental policies.
Re-adapting economic growth and industrial development to the environment is a fundamental tenet of ecological modernization. Ecosystem and economy can be connected in a way that is beneficial based on enlightened self-interest: Similar to labor productivity and capital productivity, environmental productivity refers to the efficient use of natural resources and environmental media, such as air, water, soil and ecosystems. This can be a source of future growth and development.
This covers improvements in energy and resource efficiency as well as advances in products and processes, like environmentally friendly management and sustainable supply chain management, clean technology, safe replacement of hazardous materials and environmentally friendly product design. Not only can radical developments in these domains lower emissions and resource turnover, but they can also alter the structure or quality of the industrial metabolism. Ecology modernization provides humans an active role to play in the co-evolution of Not only can radical developments in these domains lower emissions and resource turnover, but they can also alter the structure or quality of the humans and nature, which may involve conflicts with nature conservation in order to improve the environment's carrying capacity.
The sampled respondents' selections of cooking fuel varied depending on their financial bracket, degree of familiarity, kind of residence, efficacy and other factors like lack of electricity. The type of cooking fuel that households in the sample choose to use directly affects the amount of air pollution. Results are consistent with that, which establishes cooking habits in southwest Nigerian rural and urban households. According to the study, the type of household dwelling had a major impact on the pattern of cooking fuel choices. In rural regions, firewood, charcoal and sawdust are the most common choices for cooking fuels and these choices have a number of negative health effects.