Assessment of contribution of various risk factors to the burden of disease by WHO, revealed that indoor air pollution ranked the 8th most important risk factor and contributes to 2.7% of the global burden of disease. Further in developing countries where mortality rate is high, the indoor smoke is responsible for an estimated 3.7% of the overall disease burden. In the recent update WHO reported that 4.3 million people die due to illnesses which are attributable to indoor air pollution. It was estimated that in developing countries nearly 2 million excess deaths might occur due to exposure to indoor air pollution. In low and middle income countries like Bangladesh the total burden of disease associated with indoor air pollution was estimated to be 3.6% …show more content…
On the other hand to tackle indoor pollutant not much work has been progressed. In many countries the limit value of indoor pollutants yet to be adopted. However, currently while dealing with the outdoor pollutants, importance has also been given to handle indoor pollutants. Now good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is considered as important factor for a healthy indoor environment, particularly for the children, pregnant women and elderly people, because they are more vulnerable to develop disease by the indoor pollutants [1,6,7]. In Bangladesh to reduce emission by cooking with biomass fuel in the rural areas, use of improved stove for cooking purpose has been promoted by different agencies. There was also some studies related to use of biomass fuel by the rural people and respiratory problems and it was revealed that respiratory problems were more common among the females who used biomass fuel [13,14]. However no such activities have been noticed among the urban households. Moreover, there is lack of study which explored the extent of indoor air pollutant in urban area as well as their impact on human health. The present study tried to find out the concentration of some selected air pollutants in the indoor environment of the households in selected areas of Dhaka city and to assess the occurrence of