China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Composting
Published in Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem, Environmental Health Engineering in the Tropics, 2018
Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem
Anaerobic composting or digestion, also known as fermentation or putrefaction, takes place in the absence of air or oxygen. It is the process by which organic muds are broken down by bacteria in marshes, producing marsh gas, consisting mainly of methane (CH4), but also of ammonia (NH3) and various sulfur-containing gases, which smell unpleasantly. A small amount of warmth is produced, but more of the energy is stored in the methane gas, which may be used for cooking or heating. Anaerobic composting is slow and unreliable as a method of pathogen destruction because it does not achieve sufficiently high temperatures. One method, the Bangalore method, requires alternate layers of refuse and nightsoil to be buried in trenches and left for at least six months.
Organic Chemicals
Published in William J. Rea, Kalpana D. Patel, Reversibility of Chronic Disease and Hypersensitivity, Volume 4, 2017
William J. Rea, Kalpana D. Patel
Alkanes with up to four carbons (methane, ethane, propane, and butane) are gases and are present in natural gas. Methane and ethane are simple asphyxiants and in the past have not usually been thought to produce nonlocalized effects. However, there is a suggestion that chemically sensitive patients react to them specifically (brain dysfunction, fatigue, weakness) but certainly the daughter products like methanol and ethanol also cause problems. Many chemically sensitive patients react to marsh gas and to the fumes of natural gas. Whether this reaction is due to methane or other components is not 100% certain. Intradermal skin tests and inhaled challenge produce signs of the offender in the home that causes reaction and upon scientific inhalation studies at the EHC-Dallas. Clearly, we have seen many people in the thousands who have become ill by methane, ethane, propane, and butane fumes in homes heated by these substances. We have seen few moderately severe chemically sensitive patients who improved while remaining in a natural gas home environment. Natural gas is the number 1 offender for pollutant injury along with pesticides in the home. For health reason, they need to be removed.
Asthma–chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap in China: prevalence, associated factors and comorbidities in middle-aged and older adults
Published in Current Medical Research and Opinion, 2020
Peige Song, Mingming Zha, Wei Xia, Chunxian Zeng, Yajie Zhu
The participants’ educational attainments were classified as illiterate (no formal education), literate (did not finish primary school but capable of reading or writing, or home-schooled), primary education (graduated from elementary school), and middle-school education and above (graduated from middle school, high school, vocational school, college or post-graduate school). The participants’ residence was classified as urban or rural and categorized into six geographic regions, namely East China, North China, Northeast China, Northwest China, South Central China and Southwest China (see Supplementary Figure S1)18. According to the participants’ smoking and alcohol drinking habits, they were classified as never smokers/drinkers, ever smokers/drinkers and current smokers/drinkers. The sources of heating energy were classified as clean (central heating, solar, natural gas or electricity), unclean (coal, crop residue or wood) and other. Similarly, the cooking fuels were also classified as clean (natural gas, marsh gas, liquefied petroleum gas or electricity), unclean (coal, crop residue or wood) and other.