THE IMPACT OF INDOOR AIR POLLUTION ON THE RESPIRATORY HEALTH OF CHILDREN

Back ground: Indoor air pollution (IAP) refers to the various suspended toxins including carbon monoxide formaldehyde, sulfur dioxides come from household sources including the incomplete combustion of fuels or cheap fuel used in electric stoves, poorly ventilated houses without chimneys, active or passive exposure to tobacco smoke and mosquito coils (emitting formaldehyde) commonly burned to prevent insect bites. The largest source of IAP is the combustion of biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, crop residues, or dung). Health effects are determined not just by the pollution level, but more importantly by the time people spend breathing polluted air. So young children are particularly vulnerable to adverse IAP health effects, because they are spending more time indoors. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of IAP on childhood pulmonary function.Search method: This systematic review conducted through the search in the authoritative databases (PubMed, science direct, Google scholar, Scopus) with the keywords (indoor air pollution,children,respiratory,health) from 2014 to 2018. After searching the bases, 67 articles in English were obtained and after reviewing the abstract, 25 related articles were identified. After studying the full text, 17 articles met the criteria.Results: Several studies suggest that exposure to IAP is associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, acute lower respiratory illness and impaired pulmonary function particularly with prenatal and early childhood exposures Because During early childhood the lung and the bronchial tree is still developing and development of full functionality does not occur until approximately 6 years of age. At the same time the child’s lung is developing, the child’s immune system is still immature Passive exposure to tobacco was also associated with a significantly lower FVC and FEVConclusion: Young children exposed to solid fuel have a two to three times greater risk of developing acute lower respiratory tract infection compared with those living in households using cleaner fuels or suffering less exposure to smoke. This demonstrate the need for public health efforts to decrease exposure to biomass smoke

Keywords:

indoor air pollution , children , respiratory , health