Impact of Improved Cookstoves on the Level of Household Exposure to CO and PM_2.5 in Sub-Saharan Cities: The Case of the City of Ouagadougou

Air pollution is one of the major global threats to human health. In Burkina Faso, more than 80% of the population uses solid fuels as the main source of cooking energy. This paper reports a comparative study on the exposure of household to the carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM2.5) emitted by improved cookstoves (ICS) or traditional cookstoves (TCS). A cross-sectional study was conducted in the city of Ouagadougou for 4 months during the rainy season (July to October) in households with an outdoor kitchen. The investigation involved 92 households where air pollutants, such as PM2.5 and CO were measured with Indoor Air Pollution Meters (IAP meter). These measurements were focused on the concentration levels of the pollutants during cooking. The results of this study show high levels of PM2.5 and CO for all type of stoves. Wood stoves led to higher PM2.5 and lower CO emissions than charcoal stoves. ICS reduce emissions of indoor air pollutants compared to TCS. This reduction raised up to 82% for PM2.5 and 37% for CO. The analysis of the data measured with the student test (t-test) shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the average values of the concentrations of the pollutants emitted with the TCS compared to ICS, except for CO emissions measured on multi-pot sizes cookstoves (MM). This study shows that the concentrations of indoor air pollutants are very high regardless of the type of cookstoves used. The CO exposure obtained varies from 119.10 to 362.72 μg/m3 for 15-minute and 10.83 - 55.11 μg/m3 for 1-hour exposure. The exposure in PM2.5 varies from 4762 to 16,257 μg/m3 for 15-minute and 106.63 to 1597 μg/m3 for 1-hour of exposure. It was noted that the CO exposure levels obtained over 15-minute of exposure are 1.36 to 4.15 times higher than the WHO recommendation and 1.8 times higher for an exposure time of one hour. This means that women in charge of cooking have a high risk of exposure to air pollutants.