(Press-News.org) Improving cooking fuels and kitchen ventilation is associated with better lung function and reduced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to research published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The study, led by Pixin Ran from the Guanzhou Medical University, China, followed 996 villagers from southern China for 9 years to examine the effects of cleaner fuels and better kitchen ventilation on lung function and disease.
An estimated 3 billion people worldwide heat their homes and cook by burning biomass such as wood or animal dung. The resulting indoor air pollution is thought to cause more than a million deaths per year from COPD, but few studies to date have examined the long-term consequences of improving indoor air pollution on lung function and disease.
For this study, the researchers offered nearly 1000 participants from 12 villages access to biogas (a combustible clean fuel made by composting biomass at room temperature in a biogas digester) and improved kitchen ventilation, and people adopted these interventions according to their preferences. The participants provided details about their lifestyle and had their lung function measured both at the outset of the study and at its end 9 years later, and some were also interviewed and examined 3 and 6 years into the study. The researchers also tested indoor air quality in a random subset of participants' households.
Compared with those who chose not to change fuel or ventilation, participants who used biogas or improved their kitchen ventilation retained more of their lung function as they aged. People who adopted both improvements performed even better in lung function tests, and they were also less likely to develop COPD.
While the participants were not randomly assigned to a control group (who declined changes) or intervention groups (who used biogas, improved ventilation, or both), and the study can therefore not prove that the improvements caused better lung function and less COPD, the results nonetheless suggest that the interventions can reduce indoor air pollution and prevent some of its adverse consequences on health.
The authors conclude that "while we recognize that implementing community interventions to change how individuals cook in rural settings in developing countries remains a challenging task, substituting biogas for biomass fuel for cooking and improving kitchen ventilation could lead to a reduction of the global burden of COPD, especially in non-industrialized nations."
INFORMATION:
Funding: Supported by Chinese Central Government Key Research Projects of the 10th National 5-year Development Plan Grants 2001BA703B03(A) (P.R.), the National Key Technology R&D Program of the 12th National Five-year Development Plan 2012BAI05B01 (P.R.), and Special Fund for Health-scientific Research in the Public Benefit of Ministry of Health (201002008). The funders had no role in design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, writing of the report, and in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Competing Interests: No authors have any competing interests. There are no financial relationships between our research team and any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships or activities that might influence the submitted work were excluded throughout the study.
Citation: Zhou Y, Zou Y, Li X, Chen S, Zhao Z, et al. (2014) Lung Function and Incidence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease after Improved Cooking Fuels and Kitchen Ventilation: A 9-Year Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS Med 11(3): e1001621. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001621
Clean cooking fuel and improved kitchen ventilation linked to less lung disease
2014-03-25
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
X-rays film inside live flying insects -- in 3D
2014-03-25
VIDEO:
This video shows the insect thorax reconstructed from
tomograms and highlights the external movements of the thorax
and the location of the indirect power and steering muscles.
Click here for more information.
Scientists have used a particle accelerator to obtain high-speed 3D X-ray visualizations of the flight muscles of flies. The team from Oxford University, Imperial College, and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) developed a groundbreaking new CT scanning technique ...
A way to end recurrent urinary tract infections? Study with mice gives hope
2014-03-25
(SALT LAKE CITY)—Millions of people worldwide – mostly women – suffer from recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) that seriously degrade their health and quality of life. Antibiotics treat individual infections, but preventing recurrent ones largely has been unattainable because of the way bacteria lodge in the inner layers of the bladder and quietly hide from drugs that can kill them.
In new studies with mice, however, researchers led by University of Utah microbiologists have shown that when chitosan, an FDA-approved compound for pharmaceutical, agricultural and ...
EEG study shows how brain infers structure, rules when learning
2014-03-25
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — In life, many tasks have a context that dictates the right actions, so when people learn to do something new, they'll often infer cues of context and rules. In a new study, Brown University brain scientists took advantage of that tendency to track the emergence of such rule structures in the frontal cortex — even when such structure was not necessary or even helpful to learn — and to predict from EEG readings how people would apply them to learn new tasks speedily.
Context and rule structures are everywhere. They allow an iPhone user ...
In-fly movie: 3D video from inside flying insects
2014-03-25
VIDEO:
This is a 3D movie of a blowfly's flight muscles moving created by Oxford University and Imperial scientists using a new X-ray scanning technique.
Click here for more information.
The flight muscles moving inside flies have been filmed for the first time using a new 3D X-ray scanning technique.
3D movies of the muscles were created by a team from Oxford University, Imperial College London, and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), using the PSI's Swiss Light Source, ...
Strictly limiting hours surgical residents can work has not improved patient safety
2014-03-25
TORONTO, March 25, 2014--Strictly limiting the number of hours surgical residents can work has not improved patient outcomes but may have increased complications for some patients and led to higher failure rates on certification exams, a research paper concludes.
Traditionally, doctors in the residency phase of their training spent very long hours in a hospital –often around-the-clock--so they could see a wide variety and high volume of patients. In the last 10 years, health authorities started limiting those hours in the hopes of improving patient safety and the education ...
Unravelling nerve-cell death in rare children's disease
2014-03-25
LA JOLLA, Calif., March 25, 2014 — A team of scientists, led by Stuart Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Neuroscience and Aging Research Center at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), recently discovered why cerebellar granule cell neurons in patients suffering from ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) were unable to repair DNA damage and thus died.
A-T is a hereditary condition that begins early in childhood, and causes a gradual loss of certain nerve cells in the cerebellum of the brain. A-T occurs in about 1 in 40,000 births, with symptoms ...
Brain differences in college-aged occasional drug users
2014-03-25
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered impaired neuronal activity in the parts of the brain associated with anticipatory functioning among occasional 18- to 24-year-old users of stimulant drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamines and prescription drugs such as Adderall.
The brain differences, detected using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), are believed to represent an internal hard wiring that may make some people more prone to drug addiction later in life.
Among the study's main implications is the possibility ...
Penn study: Distance from designated VA liver transplant center linked with greater risk of death
2014-03-25
(PHILADELPHIA) – Veterans with liver disease who live more than 100 miles from a Veterans Administration hospital that offers liver transplants are only half as likely to be placed on the liver transplant waitlist to receive a new organ compared to veterans who live closer to transplant centers, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. The findings, which are published in the March 26 issue of JAMA, also reveal that the further liver disease patients live from these five transplant centers, the more likely they are ...
Treatment helps reduce risk of esophagus disorder progressing to cancer
2014-03-25
Among patients with the condition known as Barrett esophagus, treatment of abnormal cells with radiofrequency ablation (use of heat applied through an endoscope to destroy cells) resulted in a reduced risk of this condition progressing to cancer, according to a study in the March 26 issue of JAMA.
In the last 3 decades, the incidence of esophageal cancer has increased more rapidly that other cancers in the Western world. This type of cancer often originates from Barrett esophagus, a condition that involves abnormal changes in the cells of the lower portion of the esophagus, ...
Web-based alcohol screening program shows limited effect among university students
2014-03-25
Among university students in New Zealand, a web-based alcohol screening and brief intervention program produced a modest reduction in the amount of alcohol consumed per drinking episode but not in the frequency of drinking, overall amount consumed, or in related academic problems, according to a study in the March 26 issue of JAMA.
Unhealthy alcohol use is common among young people, including university students. Using an internet site to screening students for unhealthy alcohol use and intervene if appropriate has been suggested as an inexpensive means of reaching large ...