Carbon monoxide exposure in people living in apartment's of Santiago, Chile

Abstracts

 Introduction: Indoor carbon monoxide (CO) exposure is considered one of the most important causes of poisoning with fatal outcomes around the world. This situation has been more frequent in people living in building composed by apartments. Building characteristics and probably the ignorance of its habitant has been determinant in the majority of reported fatal cases.  Objectives: To identify the main risk factors associated with CO exposure in people lining in building apartments. Methods: we conducted a cross-sectional study between September to December of 2003 in a sample of  96 apartments of Providence community  in Santiago de Chile.  CO exposure was determined indirectly across a questionnaire and with environmental measures. Directly across personal monitoring and estimating the percentage of carboxihemoglobin (%COHb) in exhaled breath, respectively. Indoor and outdoor carbon monoxide concentrations and temperatures were monitored for a continuous period of 24 hs. Bivariate and multivariate regression models were fitted to evaluate the effects the variables determined on the CO indoor levels.  Results: Older persons spend a lot of time in indoor places compared with young people. On the other hand, the owners of these departments have a scarce knowledge of that it is CO and the effects on the health. Regression models showed that the quantity cigarettes smoked and the levels of environmental CO were significant predictors of the plasmatic concentration of %COHb, explaining 85% of the observed variability. Conclusions:  The persons with more risk of exposure to CO are the older people, since they remain most of the time to the interior of his departments. Tobacco smoke was the principal source of exposure in apartment microenvironment and it was correlated positively at the level of blood CO. It is necessary to inform the population in risk of the effects in the health.

 

 Keywords: Indoor pollution, CO exposure, exposure assessment