Indoor Air Pollutants and Respiratory Problems among Dhaka City Dwellers

Background: Indoor air pollutants becoming a great concern for public health. Indoor air pollution can cause more harmful health impacts than that of outdoor air pollution. Objectives: The study was conducted to investigate some selected indoor air pollutants and respiratory problems among the households of Dhaka city. Materials and methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted among the households in Dhaka city. A total of 97 households from the selected areas of Dhaka city were included to measure some selected indoor pollutants and 288 individuals from these households were investigated for any respiratory problems. The indoor pollutants were carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide. Results: The indoor air the pollutants which were found to be at higher levels in the studied households were carbon dioxide (≥600ppm) in 67.0% households, formaldehyde (≥0.1ppm) in 35.1% households, carbon monoxide (1-5ppm) in 17.5% households and hydrocarbon (≥600ppm) in 9.3% of the households. In most of the households (92.8%) nitrogen dioxide could not be detected. However, hydrocarbon, formaldehyde and carbon monoxide also could not be detected in 7.2%, 30.9% and 73.2% households respectively. The respiratory problems were found to be more in the households with increase concentration of pollutants in the indoor air. In addition, the average concentration of carbon dioxide, formaldehyde and hydrocarbon are found to be significantly (p<0.05) high with the occurrence of respiratory problems. The common respiratory manifestations suffered by the household members were chronic cough (34.4%), cough and chest pain (33.7%); breathlessness and chest tightness (33.3%); running nose and sneezing (30.6%) and wheeze and asthma (26.4%).  Conclusion: The study revealed that the concentrations of some indoor air pollutants were higher in the studied households of Dhaka city. The members of these households were found to suffer more from respiratory diseases, particularly households having significantly higher concentration of carbon dioxide, formaldehyde and hydrocarbon.