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Assessment of carbon monoxide exposure in roadside food-vending shanties using coal cookstoves in Kolkata, India

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Title Assessment of carbon monoxide exposure in roadside food-vending
shanties using coal cookstoves in Kolkata, India
 
Creator Majumdar, Deepanjan
Sharma, Shubham
 
Subject Air Quality
Air Pollution
Air Pollution Control
 
Description Roadside food-vending shanties using coal cookstoves may be an important source of carbon monoxide
(CO) exposure in megacities in India. The shanties are often small, congested and poorly ventilated, and
very little is known about the level of human exposure to CO. Here, we assessed the level of exposure to
CO in 25 roadside food-vending shanties using coal cookstoves in Kolkata, India. Portable electrochemical
CO monitors were used to measure CO concentrations during peak and non-peak customer-periods in
closed (blocked from three sides) and semi-closed (blocked from two sides) shanties. Measurements
were taken where customers sit indoor about 5e7 ft away from the cookstoves. The shanties' ventilation
rates were measured using tracer gas concentration-decay technique. Levels of blood carboxyhaemoglobin
(COHb) and exhaled CO were estimated using regression models. The 1-hr time weighted
average (TWA) indoor CO exposure levels ranged from 7.8 to 18.1 ppm during peak-periods, and 0.7
e3.1 ppm during non-peak-periods. The exposure levels during peak-periods exceeded the USEPA's
reference limit of 9 ppm in all cases in the closed shanties, and in 71% of cases in the semi-closed
shanties. The ventilation rates ranged from 5.5 to 23.4 and 14.8 to 32.5 cubic feet per minute (cfm)
per person for the closed and semi-closed shanties, respectively, indicating poor ventilation in some
shanties. There was significant variation (p ¼ 0.01) in the level of indoor CO exposure between peak and
non-peak periods, and between shanty types. The estimated levels of blood COHb during peak and nonpeak
hours were 0.78 ± 0.7% and 0.35 ± 0.07%, respectively, that were within the normal physiological
values in non-smokers.
 
Publisher Elsevier
 
Date 2019
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://neeri.csircentral.net/1294/1/2019-CO_Shanties-ENPO.pdf
Majumdar, Deepanjan and Sharma, Shubham (2019) Assessment of carbon monoxide exposure in roadside food-vending shanties using coal cookstoves in Kolkata, India. Environmental Pollution, 247. pp. 431-437. ISSN 0269-7491 (P) 1873-6424 (E)
 
Relation http://www.journals.elsevier.com/environmental-pollution/
http://neeri.csircentral.net/1294/