Background:
Because children spend many hours indoors at home, interventions to decrease exposures in the home could have profound impacts. In addition, many pollutants, such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) have higher levels indoors than outdoors, even in the developed world. Air pollutants may worsen respiratory outcomes through multiple mechanisms, including by directly increasing airways inflammation. Our cutting-edge study will investigate air pollution in homes with both a child and a gas stove, assessing a cooking ventilation intervention.
We are also training a cohort of local high school youth in environmental health literacy, including guest talks from experts and stakeholders, meetings, brainstorming sessions and air monitoring projects.