Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Black carbon ups risk of cardiovascular diseases in women

Benita Matilda in Science World Report: Black carbon is found worldwide and is often produced from biomass burning, cooking with solid fuels and diesel exhausts. Since black carbon is the leading cause of respiratory illness and premature mortality, researchers at the McGill University investigated the effects of black carbon pollutant on the health of women cooking with traditional wood stoves.

Highlighting the detrimental effects of black carbon, the researchers claim that this pollutant elevates the risk of cardiovascular disease in women. They based their finding on the daily exposure to various types of air pollutants, including black carbon, in 280 women residing in China's rural Yunnan province.

The team basically focused on the health consequences of these air pollutants that are emitted from sources common in developingcountries.

"China's unprecedented economic growth is fuelling massive increases in industrial and motor vehicle pollution, and 700 million Chinese homes still cook with wood and coal fuels. The Chinese government is setting new targets to improve its air quality. We wanted to identify the pollution sources that most impact human health to help inform these pollution control efforts." said study lead McGill Professor Jill Baumgartner....

A chulla cookstove in Tamil Nadu, shot by mckaysavage, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

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