An American study warns: Cooking with wood can cause lung damage

A research study has revealed that cooking with wood can cause lung damage as advanced imaging using tomography has shown that people who cook with biomass fuels such as wood are at risk of severe lung damage due to the inhalation of dangerous concentrations of bacterial pollutants and toxins, the study was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

According to a newspaper article TIME NOW NEWS Nearly 3 billion people around the world cook with biomass, such as wood. Pollutants from cooking with biomass contribute significantly to 4 million deaths each year from diseases related to domestic air pollution, while public health initiatives have sought to provide support. To move from biomass fuel to cleaner LPG as a fuel source, a large number of homes continue to use biomass fuel. Financial restrictions and reluctance to change established habits are a factor, along with a lack of information on the effects of biomass smoking on lung health.

The study co-author said Abhilash Kizhakke Puliyakote From the University of California School of Medicine: “It is important to discover, understand and reverse the early changes that occur in response to chronic exposure to biomass fuel emissions.“.

A multidisciplinary team studied the impact of kitchen stove pollutants in 23 people who cooked with LPG or wood biomass in Thanjavur, India. Researchers measured pollutant concentrations in homes and then studied people’s lung function using traditional tests such as spirometry and also used advanced CT to perform quantitative measurements – for example, they performed a scan when the person was inhaling and another after exhaling and measuring the difference between the images to see how the lungs worked..

From the analysis it emerged that those who cooked with woody biomass were exposed to higher concentrations of pollutants and bacterial endotoxins than the users of LPG also had a significantly higher level of air retention in the lungs, a condition associated with lung diseases.