Indoor Air Pollution and Correlation to Mosquitoes
One of the potential problems that my group has hypothesized is the matter of indoor air pollution and it’s potential correlation with mosquitoes. Domestic use of biomass fuels increases the amount of indoor air pollution in a household and structure, it also increases the heat of the structure. As a result, we hypothesized that the warmer climate in the house would attract mosquitoes, which thus increases the potential of any inhabitants to be infected with dengue. However, the article written by Biran, Smith, Lines, Ensink, and Cameron focuses on repellent effect of smoke on mosquitoes, specifically carrying malaria. Although this article regard malaria-infected mosquitoes. It can still be used to display the possibility of the indoor air pollution actually decreasing the risk of being stung by mosquitoes as the smoke, and later smog, that is in the house actually acts as a natural repellent to mosquitoes. In fact, the article also reviews literature speaking of “house ventilation and mosquito entry” and shows that “ [an] increased indoor mosquito density was noted”.
Although the smoke may act as a natural repellent to the mosquitoes, this does not discredit or minimize the health concerns created by indoor air pollution.
