Kathmandu, May 8:

Indoor air pollution is one of the main causes of health hazards among the rural people, experts said today.

Poorly ventilated houses and use of traditional sources of fuel are the main causes of indoor air pollution and some 20 per cent of the population exposed to the smoke suffer from different cancers, they said.

Around 85 per cent of the total population depend on nearly 85 per cent of the energy that comes from the biomass, said Bhushan Tuladhar, executive director of the Environment and Public Health Organisation (ENPHO), talking to this daily.

He added that the use of solid fuel mostly affects people living in the higher hilly region because houses there lack proper ventilation.

The people use solid fuels such as logs, dried cow dung, crop residue and coal for their cooking and space heating purposes and the homes do not have proper ventilation, and this affects their health, he said.

Dr Rajendra Baral, medical director of Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, said around 20 per cent of those exposed to indoor pollution most likely suffer from cancer. The smoke that spread in the house during burning of traditional fuel cause long-term health hazards to all the population exposed to smoke.

The indoor air pollution from solid fuel mostly affects the underprivileged women and children. “The children are more vulnerable to air pollution and may have Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI), pneumonia and breathing problems,” Tuladhar said, adding, “The indoor smoke may cause diseases like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma and cataract in the adults.”

Tuladhar informed that according to a preliminary research jointly undertaken by a consultant of the World Bank and ENPHO, the cost of Lower Respiratory Infection (LRI) and COPD in women and children is around $88.109 million per year, 1.2 per cent of loss of the total Gross Domestic Product of Nepal.