"It is unbearable to breathe here": air quality, open incineration, and misinformation in Blantyre, Malawi.

ABSTRACT: Blantyre, Malawi's Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), or Queen's, as it's known locally, is the country's largest public hospital. However, Queen's is not served by regular municipal waste collection. Rather, most hospital waste (infectious and non-infectious) is gathered by grounds staff and openly burned, in several constantly smouldering piles, sending up clouds of smoke. Speaking directly to an identified knowledge gap on air quality impacts linked to trash burning and the paucity of African urban dwellers' voices on air quality issues, this study employed a mixed-methods approach to both quantitatively measure the air quality around QECH, and to qualitatively investigate the perceived impacts amongst staff and caregivers. Low-cost sensors measuring particulate matter (PM) with p

SUBMITTER: Tilley E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10613470 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature