Potential exposure to polluted indoor air in developing countries
Air Quality: Indoor Air Pollution
The air portion of the indicator for developing countries includes three variables representing potential exposure to poor quality air: exposure to polluted indoor air, exposure to polluted ambient air, and exposure to air polluted with lead from gasoline. Each of these three variables was estimated using the best available data. For example, exposure to polluted indoor air was calculated using the amount of residential coal and biomass fuel consumed per household in each country. WRI divided the total amount of residential coal and biomass fuel consumed per country by the total number of households within that country.
When the amount of residential coal and biomass fuel burned per country was not available from the International Energy Agency, WRI used data from the United Nations (Energy Yearbook) on the total amount of traditional fuel consumed. WRI subtracted the amount of bagasse produced by each country from the total biomass fuel consumed, assuming that the remainder was exclusively for residential use. (Bagasse is a residue left after sugar is extracted from sugar cane and is often used as a fuel in the sugar milling industry.) This indicator of exposure to indoor air pollution does not account for confounding factors that can reduce exposure to biomass fuel used indoors, such as cooking methods, stove and heater design, house and kitchen design, and ventilation systems.
Sources
Residential use of coal and biomass fuel: Energy Statistics and Balances of Non-OECD Countries 1993 1994 , Energy Statistics of OECD Countries 1993 1994 (Paris, 1996), and Energy Balances of OECD Countries 1994-1995 (Paris, 1997), International Energy Agency, Energy Statistics Division; 1994 Energy Statistics Yearbook, United Nations (U.N.) Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis, Statistics Division (U.N., New York, 1996); Energy Demand Forecast and Environmental Impact in China, Environment Information Center (Tokyo, 1994).
Average size of households: Demographic Yearbook, 1987 and 1990, United Nations Department of International Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Office (New York, 1989, 1992).
Total population: United Nations Population Division, Annual Population 19502050 (The 1996 Revision), on diskette (U.N., New York, 1996).
Notes
Residential use of coal and biomass fuel is compiled from several sources that use various definitions. The International Energy Agency defines combustible renewable energy consumption by the residential sector as solid biomass and animal products, gas/liquids from biomass, and any plant matter that is used directly as fuel or converted into fuels or electricity and/or heat; included are wood, vegetal waste, ethanol, animal materials/wastes, and sulphite lyes. The United Nations Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis, Statistics Division, defines traditional fuels as including fuelwood (all wood in the rough used for fuel purposes including the portion used for charcoal production); bagasse (the cellulosic residue left after sugar is extracted from sugar cane it is often used as a fuel within the sugar milling industry); charcoal (the solid residue consisting mainly of carbon obtained by the destructive distillation of wood in the absence of air); animal wastes (excreta of cattle, horses, pigs, poultry, and humans used as a fuel); and vegetal wastes (mainly crop residues cereal straw from maize, wheat, and paddy rice, and food processing wastes rice hulls, coconut husks, and ground-nut shells).
The concept of household is based on the arrangements made by persons, individually or in groups, for providing themselves with food or other essentials for living; households may be one person or multiperson.
Population refers to the midyear population as reported by the United Nations Population Division for 1994. Most data are estimates based on population censuses and surveys. All projections are for the medium-case scenario.
Number of households is the total 1994 population divided by the average size of a household.
Residential use of coal and biomass fuel per household is the amount of residential coal and biomass fuel from the first column in the table (in kilograms of coal equivalent) divided by the number of households (in thousands), reported in kilograms of coal equivalent.
Rank of potential exposure to biomass use:Relative ranks of residential use of coal and biomass fuel per household ranging from relatively low use (rank of 1) to relatively high use (rank of 96). Countries with the same amount of biomass use were assigned the same rank; countries without data were not ranked.
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