Open fire ovens and effects of in-home lavash bread baking on carbon monoxide exposure and carboxyhemoglobin levels among women in rural Armenia.

Lavash is a traditional flatbread commonly baked at home by women in Armenia and other Middle Eastern and Caucasus countries. The baking process follows centuries' old recipes and is done primarily in open fire ovens. Data are limited regarding the impact of baking on indoor air quality and health outcomes. This study aimed at assessing the effects of lavash baking on household air pollution and cardiovascular outcomes among women who bake lavash in rural Armenia. A convenience sample of 98 bakers, all women, never-smokers, representing 36 households were enrolled. Carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations and carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) levels were monitored before, during, and/or after baking. As expected, exposure to concentrations of CO peaking at/or above 35-ppm during baking was more likely to occur in homes with fully enclosed and poorly ventilated baking rooms, compared to those with three or fewer walls and/or one or more windows. Bakers in homes where CO concentrations peaked at/or above 35-ppm were more likely to have an increase in post-baking COHb levels compared to those in homes with lower CO concentrations.

Exposure to Household Air Pollution from Biomass Cookstoves and Levels of Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide (FeNO) among Honduran Women.

Household air pollution is estimated to be responsible for nearly three million premature deaths annually. Measuring fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) may improve the limited understanding of the association of household air pollution and airway inflammation. We evaluated the cross-sectional association of FeNO with exposure to household air pollution (24-h average kitchen and personal fine particulate matter and black carbon; stove type) among 139 women in rural Honduras using traditional stoves or cleaner-burning Justa stoves. We additionally evaluated interaction by age. Results were generally consistent with a null association; we did not observe a consistent pattern for interaction by age. Evidence from ambient and household air pollution regarding FeNO is inconsistent, and may be attributable to differing study populations, exposures, and FeNO measurement procedures (e.g., the flow rate used to measure FeNO).