Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

Objective

Objective of the study is to assess the effects of poor ventilation on health in community.

Purpose of Study

The overall purposes of ventilation are to provide a healthy living environment for everyone, to
protect the natural resources like wind and buoyancy to provide proper breathing process, save
from pollution. In my community (stomping ground) area Ali Raza Abad there is no proper
ventilation system in houses and this may cause many diseases like Asthma and Tuberculosis.
During survey and reconnoiter this community we found these diseases in great measure.

Introduction

Ventilation is the intentional introduction of ambient air into a space and is mainly used to

control indoor air quality by diluting and displacing indoor pollutants; it can also be used for

purposes of thermal comfort or dehumidification. The correct introduction of ambient air will

help to achieve desired indoor comfort levels although the measure of an ideal comfort level

varies from individual to individual.

We visit the community Ali Raza Abad. We went to the community and collect the data from

community through wind sheet form and family assessment form. We selected the 70 families

for the data collection. We collect the data and after this we compile the data and analyzed that

many diseases are present in the community Ali Raza Abad. . The condition of the houses was

not good; there was no proper ventilation system. Garbage was spread in the street. Children

were playing in the street in unpaved condition and they were very dirty. People suffering from

many diseases like Hepatitis B, Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus, Scabies, Fever, Asthma,

Tuberculosis Cough and many other respiratory diseases. Many of these diseases related to poor

or improper ventilation in houses. The overall purposes of ventilation are to provide a healthy
Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

living environment for everyone, to protect the natural resources like wind and buoyancy to

provide proper breathing process, save from pollution. In my community (stomping ground) area

that is situated on Raiwind road Lahore named Ali Raza Abad there is no proper ventilation

system in houses and this may cause many diseases like Asthma and Tuberculosis. During

survey and reconnoiter this community we found these diseases in great measure.

Dynamics related to poor ventilation

People in the community Ali Raza Abad Lahore, Pakistan suffer from various problems or

diseases like skin allergies, asthma, and tuberculosis and face most of indoor air pollution. The

building map is poorly constructed because people belong from low middle class families and

small place to live. They cannot manage healthy facilities to live good healthy life due to poverty

and some of due to illiteracy. Poor housing ventilation in extreme heating seasons exaggerate

health problems. In the community area Ali Raza Abad, Lahore which is our pointed place for

the sake of study and interview-based report writing for Effects of Ventilation on Health or Poor

Ventilation. The people of this community were also affected with tuberculosis, asthma, chronic

cough.

Problem regarded Poor Ventilation

In the community Ali Raza Abad Lahore, most of the respiratory diseases related to poor

ventilation due to these factors like smoke and steam of the kitchens and dust In the survey

prevalence of respiratory infections was 15·0%.this include also poor construction of houses

irregularity of temperature, moist and humidified air crossing inside the house. These results

allude the health problems and risk for respiratory diseases. The significant riddles of this
Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

community Ali Raza Abad is that the people have poor knowledge about ventilation system and

diseases related to poor ventilation and indoor pollutants.

Prevalence

In the community of Ali Raza Abad Lahore there were nearly 10-15 cases of respiratory diseases

included tuberculosis, asthma, chronic cough, shortness of breath found by the family visit and

assessment and all those families had poor ventilation system specially to remove smoke and

steam.

Steps to select the problem

For the selection of my field project, I used the primary health care (PHC) approach in which I

followed the following steps

1) Assessment

Conducting assessments provide data on the overall health of a community and increased risk for

poor health sequel. I assess various families of the community of Ali Raza Abad toidentifying

different health problems and select the Effects of Ventilation on Health or Poor Ventilation.

2) Prevalence

In the community of Ali Raza Abad Lahore there were nearly 10-15 cases of respiratory diseases

included tuberculosis, asthma, chronic cough, shortness of breath found by the family visit and

assessment and all those families had poor ventilation system specially to remove smoke and

steam.

3) Prioritization

The problem was prioritized by looking the community people have poor knowledge about

ventilation system and diseases related to poor ventilation and indoor pollutants and have no
Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

proper ventilation system of houses specially to remove smoke and steam and air crossing

system.

Literature Review

According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report, 8 million people die

every year globally because of air pollution. Among these, 4.3 million die because of air

pollution from household sources and 3.7 million die because of ambient air pollution.

Of the 4.3 million people who die every year because of household air pollution, 60%

die because of cardiovascular diseases and 40% die because of pulmonary diseases Short-term

effects of exposure to household air pollutants confer an increased risk for deaths because of

cardiovascular as well as respiratory causes. A 10 μg/m3 increase in indoor PM has been shown

to increase cardiovascular mortality by 0.36% and respiratory mortality by 0.42%. Similarly, a

10 μg/m3 increase in indoor PM has mortality by 0.63% and been shown to increase

cardiovascular respiratory mortality by 0.75%. In the long term, every 10 μg/m3 increase of

household PM increases the risk of mortality by 23% to 67%.

Deaths related to indoor air pollution CHD, coronary heart disease; COPD, chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease shown in figure.

Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

Too low RH can also cause problems and could be one of the reasons why Ruotsalainen et al.

(2013) observed in Finland that increased ventilation rate caused an increase of SBS symptoms,

such as dryness, nasal problems and itching. Their study was actually performed from November

to April so it is likely that RH was quite low, although measured to be on average approximately

36%. Moisture can also be controlled by creating barriers in the building structure and/or local

exhaust in laundries, bathrooms and kitchens, as well as by the banning of drying of laundry in

spaces where people live.

The association of environmental factors (including housing) with respiratory infections in

children under 5 years of age, a cross-sectional study of 403 families was conducted in a squatter

settlement of Karachi. In the survey prevalence of respiratory infections was 15·0%.

Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

Respiratory infections caused by burning biomass fuels in poorly ventilated areas also

place a considerable health burden on poor people. According to the WHO, exposure to biomass

smoke increases the risk of acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) in childhood, particularly

pneumonia. Globally, ALRI represent the single most important cause of death in children under

5 years and account for at least two million deaths annually in this age group.
Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

Location of Study Area

Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

Recommended strategies

According to study of community Ali Raza Abad is that the people have poor knowledge about

ventilation system and diseases related to poor ventilation and indoor pollutants and poor

designing of house construction. They have no idea about diseases caused by poor ventilation

and indoor pollutants. Little people in community concern health center for the prevention of

diseases related to poor ventilation. Most of the people use home remedies and other treatment at

home. The people of this community have different believe and practice about different disease.

So as a community health nurse we should take different strategies to resolve this problem. First

recommended strategy is to concern with PHC, BHU, RHC because these are the basis unit for

health promotion to act upon on disease prevention, so as a community health nurse is the first

strategy to bring some changes in the prevention of disease.

Because people of this community have no knowledge regarding poor ventilation and its

effects on health we guided the people to moist clean the homes to remove dust monthly through

conducting lectures and health education in families individually to aware the people about

different diseases.

To aware the people for different diseases and prevention of diseases we will visit to the

community every week to assess the health condition of the people of community of Ali Raza

Abad and ask different questions related to poor ventilation and its effects on health and record

their views regarding ventilation.

Plan of Action
Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

I made teaching plan to provide some knowledge about ventilation to the people of Ali Raza

Abad and this teaching session includes following:

 To give knowledge about ventilation.

 To discuss the effects of poor knowledge.

 To give awareness about diseases related to poor ventilation system.

 To motivate people to change their behavior regarding ventilation and life style which are

harmful to their health.

 To give some instruction for removing smoke and dust.

Implementation

We also modify our lecture method before implementing because lecture method was difficult

for the participant to understand and we use the discussion method through which the people of

that community can easily understand because most of the people of that community were

illiterate.

Evaluation

Evaluation was done by the help of people responses at the end of the teaching session I asked

question from community to evaluate how much community understand and how much I am

successful for achieving our goals. People gave good response and cleared their concept. We

evaluate that mostly 90 percent we have achieved our goal which increased knowledge of people

regarding ventilation.

Conclusion
Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

The most of the study in the community of Ali Raza AbadLahorePakistan showing that they are

not aware about the ventilation. They are not known to the effects of poor ventilation and

respiratory diseases related to poor ventilation. The main reason behind this is limited area to

construct a good ventilated home and secondly large number of family members to live in a

small house. After this study I am able to identify that the people of this community have less

knowledge regarding ventilation. They have poor knowledge about home cleaning, removing

smoke and steam. All houses cannot able to reconstruct their buildings for proper ventilation to

improve indoor air quality but they can improve their life style and cooking methods to remove

smoke and steam by using simple fan. Most of the people understood about improving stoves

system without ventilation after our teaching sessions.

Effects of Poor Ventilation in Homes on Health

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