The relationship between lung function and indoor air pollution among rural women in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria

Sir/Madam,

This is a response to the queries raised in the letter to the editor concerning the article titled “The relationship between lung function and indoor air pollution among rural women in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria” the author raised two issues;[1] Matching controls according to the housing conditions and an error in the total number of subjects.

1. Ibaka is a poor rural community in Nigeria and this is reflected in the housing of the people. Most of the houses have walls made from mud bricks with a roof of thatch. Ventilation is generally poor with most of the rooms having only one window or none at all. Most of the households use fire wood for cooking in open stoves. The cooking area is usually detached from the main house such that the indoor air pollution is not a much of a problem except for those doing the cooking. There is really no difference in the socioeconomic status of the subjects i.e. case and control: The cases smoked fish while the controls engaged in fishing, farming or petty trading. Therefore, there were no observed differences in housing and domestic fuel use between them. The authors did not document the use of insecticides by the subjects, but it is assumed that the use of insecticides will not be selective by one group or the other due to the cost and the fact that there is no difference socioeconomically between the two groups. Overall the authors are of the opinion that apart from exposure to indoor air pollution the subjects were well matched.

2. The authors acknowledge that the sum of 342 and 346 is 688 and not 686 as stated in the results. This is an error and we will like the editor to make the necessary correction for the same. This error does not affect the rest of the results.