TY - JOUR T1 - Indoor pollution and poor ventilation inside the houses synergize to cause airflow limitation in non smokers high altitude dwellers JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 40 IS - Suppl 56 SP - P4002 AU - Luca Pomidori AU - Manuela Bartesaghi AU - Buddha Basnyat AU - Rosa Maria Bruno AU - Enrico Duo AU - Giuseppe Miserocchi AU - Lorenza Pratali AU - Ramesh Sharma AU - Kamal Tapa AU - Annalisa Cogo Y1 - 2012/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P4002.abstract N2 - Indoor air pollution from biomass fuel smoke is linked to respiratory diseases. We performed spirometry in 3 villages of a nepalese valley where neither traffic nor industries are present, people use biomass fuels for heating and cooking, often without a chimney, and have a very low smoke habit (4%) so that only the effect of indoor pollution can be investigated. We meausered the ventilation inside the houses (Ventilation Index [VI]= window surface/kitchen cubic meters) and the environmental (not reported) and exhaled carbon monoxide as a surrogate marker of indoor pollution. A total of 304 subjects performed acceptable and reproducible spirometry. We calculated the % of subjects with non reversible bronchial obstruction (GOLD) and the % of subjects with FEF25-75 <70% of predicted. Note that in the last ten years indoor ventilation has been improved in the buildings of Pengboche, the village most frequented by trekkers.View this table:RESULTSExhaled CO and VI are negatively correlated (p 0.002). We conclude that subjects living in poorly ventilated houses and only exposed to indoor pollution have a high incidence of COPD and of abnormalities of FEF25-75 which could be interpreted as an early marker of bronchial obstruction (Pellegrino R et al, 2005).*p <.05 vs PengbocheFunded by Ev-K2-CNR, Italy. ER -