An Observational Study of Long Term Exposure to Fire and Its Health Impact in Female Cooks With Special Reference to Vitiations in Raktavaha Strotas

Long term exposure to fire (अनलसेवा) is one of the etiological factors of raktavaha srotasa vitiation. Both exposure to fire (अनलसेवा) and sunlight (आतपसेवा) lead to exposure to heat, but they are separately mentioned as two different etiological factors. And therefore exposure to fire (अनलसेवा) carries more significance for its specific mention. Occupations or workplaces where one works near fire are the fire fighters, miners, workers working near industrial fire, etc and the domestic and hotel cooks. Almost in every household kitchen of Indian cities, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is used as fuel and therefore it is the place where domestic female cooks are exposed to heat generated by fire (अनल). In this study, total 100 female cooks, who had daily exposure to fire, were included in the study. They were studied for signs and symptoms of raktavaha srotasa vitiation. In this study it is observed that, 61% patients have past or present history of signs and symptoms of raktavaha srotasa vitiation. In these maximum of 30 patients were found to have vyanga (melasma), followed by 28 patients of tilakalaka (excess moles), 27 patients of vaivarnya (discolouration of skin), 22 patients of atisweda (excessive sweating), 18 patients of pidaka (acne), 16 patients of mukhapaka (stomatitis), 14 patients of kushtha (any skin related disease/ signs and symptoms) and daha (burning), 10 patients of kandu (itching). Hence it is concluded, that there is association of long term exposure to fire and raktavaha srotasa vitiation. Briefly, it can be concluded that long term exposure to fire vitiate the raktavaha srotasa and signs and symptoms of vitiation can be found in patients. Maximum number of signs and symptoms of vitiation can explain the severity of raktavaha srotas vitiation.