Original Paper I Indoor and and Built uilt Environment Short-term exposure assessment to particulate matter and total volatile organic compounds in indoor air during cooking Ethiopian sauces (Wot) using electricity, kerosene and charcoal fuels Asamene Embiale 1 , Feleke Zewge 1 , Bhagwan Singh Chandravanshi 1 and Endalkachew Sahle-Demessie 2 Abstract A total of 45 households were selected to participate in a study to assess indoor exposure to particulate matter (PM) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) while cooking a widely consumed Ethiopian traditional stew sauce (Wot, in Amharic). The geometric mean (GOM) concentrations of PM 1 , PM 2.5 and PM 10 when electricity, kerosene and charcoal fuel sources were used during the wet season ranged 11.4–151 mg.m 3 , whereas the GOM concentrations during the dry season ranged 7.7–222 mg.m 3 . The GOM of TVOC during the wet and dry seasons using electricity, kerosene and charcoal fuel ranged 350–812 mgm 3 . The health risks associated with exposure to PM 2.5 , PM 10 and total suspended particulate matter (TSP), either as a single pollutant or cumulative based on the hazard quotient (HQ) or hazard index (HI) calculation by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, indicate that exposure to PM 2.5 , PM 10 or TSP while cooking Wot using electricity, kerosene and charcoal fuels may not cause health problems to a healthy adult. However, long-term exposure to high levels of PM 10 emissions when char- coal fuel is used is considered to be unsafe. The exposure to all the emitted pollutants during the use of any of the three fuels sources may also pose a human health impact to individuals near the sources. Keywords Charcoal, Kerosene, Electricity, Indoor air pollution, Particulate, VOC, Wot, Ethiopia Accepted: 16 February 2019 Introduction More than 40% (>3 billion people) of the world’s pop- ulation rely on unprocessed solid biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, agricultural residues and animal dung) for their daily household energy needs. 1,2 Such types of fuel use are much higher in developing countries than in developed countries. Studies in Sub-Saharan Africa have shown that 90–95% of domestic energy (for cook- ing, lighting and heating) depends on the biomass fuels, with cooking having a significant share. In Ethiopia, 1 Department of Chemistry, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, USA Corresponding author: Bhagwan Singh Chandravanshi, Department of Chemistry, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University, P. O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Email: bscv2006@yahoo.com Indoor and Built Environment 0(0) 1–15 ! The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals- permissions DOI: 10.1177/1420326X19836453 journals.sagepub.com/home/ibe