AND Recent study Published in regional health Lancet – Southeast Asia found that users of cooking fuel can be exposed to a higher risk of cognitive damage.
A study that emphasizes the need for policy promoting fuel/pure cooking technology has found that rural women who tend to be exposed than men could have greater vulnerability to adverse effects of household air pollution (HAP) on the brain.
The team of research workers from the Brain Research Center at the Indian Scientific Institute (IISC) in Bengalur and the University of Chicago in the United States used basic data from participants in the ongoing prospective cohort study, brain research – Srinivaspura Aging, Neuronescence and Cognition). The data were collected from January 2018 to December 2023. Under the cohort of CBR-Sanscog, adults at the age of over 45 years were admitted from the villages of the Taluk Srinivaspura in the Kolar district in Karnataka. Of the size of 4,145 adults, up to 994 participants were included in the MRI analysis, undergoing MRI quality control.
Air pollution in the home
Hap It is a specific type of air pollution, which is primarily resulting from the use of pollutants of cooking technologies – coal stove, biomass stove, chullah (clay stove) and fuel pollutants such as firewood, coal, coal, lignite or carbon and kerosene.
While HAP from polluting fuel fuel, an uncontrollable problem in rural India is suspected of a significant modifiable risk factor for cognitive damage, there was no evidence supported by neuroimaging in this population.
“The aim of our study was to explore the relationship between cooking technology as proxy for HAP and cognitive performance and morphology of the brain in the coorte of Srinivaspura. We assumed that the HAP exposure is associated with the poor cognitive performance and morphology of the brain in this population. The CBR team said Hindu.
Cognitive function
According to the study, only pollutants of cooking technology had significantly lower scores in global knowledge, visuospatial abilities and powerful features, while at least one user -polluting user had a lower score in global knowledge, compared to net cooking users.
“This study has seen significantly worse performance of cognitive features specific to global and domain among users of cooking technology.
“When solid fuels are burned inside cooking, especially in poorly ventilated areas, air, such as carbon oxides, nitrogen, sulfur, sulfur, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and suspended particles that are released.”
The impact of household air pollution on health
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 3.2 million premature deaths worldwide from HAP diseases since 2020. These include ischemic heart disease, stroke and chronic pulmonary conditions. In India, since 2019, HAP has attributed 0.81 million deaths.
Since 2019–21, a survey of National Health of Family Health 2019–21 said that 41.4% of households in India lasted access to clean cooking fuels. This disparity was more pronounced in rural areas, where 56.8% of households used cooking fuels compared to 10.3% in urban areas.
In Karnataka, 30.7% of rural households relied in 2019–2020. A nationwide study of 2017 found that death and Dalys (lifetime of disability) as a result of HAP in Karnataka were significantly higher than the death caused by pollution of the surrounding particles, contrasting with trends in most other countries.
A modifiable risk factor
While there is a large amount of evidence documenting the effects of air pollution on cardiovascular and pulmonary health, its impact on the knowledge and health of the brain has only been examined only recently. In addition to well -recognized risk factors for cognitive damage, such as age, genetic predisposition and cardiovascular disease, increasing evidence suggests that air pollution is a modifiable risk factor.
“Our study reflects findings on a harmonized analysis of aging studies throughout India, China and Mexico, which revealed a worse cognitive function among pollutants of fuel for cooking. Among the first few studies it is negatively associated with rural Indian environments. “The study added.
Published – 7 July 2025 9:33
