A cross-sectional study looking at the effect of indoor biomass fuel on lung health and socio-economic parameters

Biofuels used in cooking and heating produce a toxic cocktail of particulate matter (PM), resulting in chronic lung complications. Only a few regions worldwide experience ambient PM levels as high as the Indo-Gangetic plains. On average, women and children breathe 75-100 µg/m3 of PM (WHO recommends <10 µg/m3), indicating the multifaceted healthcare, economic and environmental burden in rural households, where biofuel use prevails. And yet, regional ground-based PM data are sparse, there is poor awareness about air pollution, and clean energy initiatives are lagging. We hypothesize that biofuel combustion and PM exposure can be related to specific pollutant classes (triggers) and their synergistic interactions paving way for tracing early metabolomic signatures in plasma to diagnose the aging of lungs, asthma and COPD. Hence, we aim to 1) conduct socioeconomic and health surveys, and develop real-time indoor monitoring of PM using automated sensor networks, 2) analyze organic compounds and oxidative metals that trigger pulmonary stress, 3) identify novel biomarkers in plasma and combine the integrative transcriptomics, epidemiological and environmental chemical data. This interdisciplinary novel approach on PM characteristics and metabolomics will establish causality with PM to provide a holistic perception and tackle PM exposure to advance early diagnosis. These initiatives will further strategies to improve air quality and health (UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 7).