Browsing by Author "Zhoua, Z."
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Item Household and community poverty, biomass use, and air pollution in Accra, Ghana(Proceedings of the National Academy of the United States of America, 2011-07) Zhoua, Z.; Dionisio, K.L.; Arku, R.E.; Quaye, A.; Hughes, A.F.; Vallarino, J.; Spengler, J.D.; Hill, A.; Agyei-Mensah, S.; Ezzati, M.Many urban households in developing countries use biomass fuels for cooking. The proportion of household biomass use varies among neighborhoods, and is generally higher in low socioeconomic status (SES) communities. Little is known of how household air pollution varies by SES and how it is affected by biomass fuels and traffic sources in developing country cities. In four neighborhoods in Accra, Ghana, we collected and analyzed geo-referenced data on household and community particulate matter (PM) pollution, SES, fuel use for domestic and small-commercial cooking, housing characteristics, and distance to major roads. Cooking area PM was lowest in the high-SES neighborhood, with geometric means of 25 (95% confidence interval, 21–29) and 28 (23–33) μg/m3 for fine and coarse PM (PM2.5 and PM2.5–10), respectively; it was highest in two low-SES slums, with geometric means reaching 71 (62–80) and 131 (114–150) μg/m3 for fine and coarse PM. After adjustment for other factors, living in a community where all households use biomass fuels would be associated with 1.5- to 2.7-times PM levels in models with and without adjustment for ambient PM. Community biomass use had a stronger association with household PM than household’s own fuel choice in crude and adjusted estimates. Lack of regular physical access to clean fuels is an obstacle to fuel switching in low-income neighborhoods and should be addressed through equitable energy infrastructure.Item Household and community poverty, biomass use, and air pollution in Accra, Ghana(National Academy of Science of the Unites States of America, 2011-06) Zhoua, Z.; Dionisio, K.L.; Arku, R.E.; Quaye, A.; Hughes, A.F.; Vallarino, J.; Spengler, J.D.; Hill, A.; Agyei-Mensah, S.; Ezzati, M.Many urban households in developing countries use biomass fuels for cooking. The proportion of household biomass use varies among neighborhoods, and is generally higher in low socioeconomic status (SES) communities. Little is known of how household air pollution varies by SES and how it is affected by biomass fuels and traffic sources in developing country cities. In four neighborhoods in Accra, Ghana, we collected and analyzed geo-referenced data on household and community particulate matter (PM) pollution, SES, fuel use for domestic and small-commercial cooking, housing characteristics, and distance to major roads. Cooking area PM was lowest in the high-SES neighborhood, with geometric means of 25 (95% confidence interval, 21–29) and 28 (23–33) μg/m3 for fine and coarse PM (PM2.5 and PM2.5–10), respectively; it was highest in two low-SES slums, with geometric means reaching 71 (62–80) and 131 (114–150) μg/m3 for fine and coarse PM. After adjustment for other factors, living in a community where all households use biomass fuels would be associated with 1.5- to 2.7-times PM levels in models with and without adjustment for ambient PM. Community biomass use had a stronger association with household PM than household’s own fuel choice in crude and adjusted estimates. Lack of regular physical access to clean fuels is an obstacle to fuel switching in low-income neighborhoods and should be addressed through equitable energy infrastructure.Item Spatial and temporal patterns of particulate matter sources and pollution in four communities in Accra, Ghana(Elsevier, 2012) Rooney, M.S.; Arku, R.E.; Dionisio, K.L.; Paciorek, C.; Friedman, A.B.; Carmichael, H.; Zhoua, Z.; Hughes, A.F.; Vallarino, J.; Agyei-Mensah, S.; Spengler, J.D.; Ezzati, M.Sources of air pollution in developing country cities include transportation and industrial pollution, biomass fuel use, and re-suspended dust from unpaved roads. We examined the spatial patterns of particulate matter (PM) and its sources in four neighborhoods of varying socioeconomic status (SES) in Accra. PM data were from 1 week of morning and afternoon mobile and stationary air pollution measurements in each of the study neighborhoods. PM2.5 and PM10 were measured continuously, with matched GPS coordinates. Data on biomass fuel use were from the Ghana 2000 population and housing census and from a census of wood and charcoal stoves along the mobile monitoring paths. We analyzed the associations of PM with sources using a mixed-effects regression model accounting for temporal and spatial autocorrelation. After adjusting for other factors, the density of wood stoves, fish smoking, and trash burning along the mobile monitoring path as well as road capacity and surface were associated with higher PM2.5. Road capacity and road surface variables were also associated with PM10, but the association with biomass sources was weak or absent. While wood stoves and fish smoking were significant sources of air pollution, addressing them would require financial and physical access to alternative fuels for low-income households and communities.