Objective   To understand the status of indoorairpollution from coal burningin some rural areas in Shanxi province.

  Methods   Airsamples were collected forthree continuous days from bedrooms, kitchens of selected families, as well as outdoorspace in Pingding and Taigu counties.Three contaminations including carbon monoxide(CO), sulfurdioxide(SO₂) and 3, 42benzo(a)pyrene〔B(a)P)were determined following the 'indoorairquality standard'.

  Results   The pollution from coal burning was more serious in winterthan in summer, and in kitchen than in bed room and out doorspace.The average concent rations of B(a)Pwere 15.0 ng/m³ in kitchen and 11.84 ng/m³ in bed room during winter; The proportion of samples overnational Bap standard forkitchen and bed room reached 97.9% and 93.8, respectively.The highest Bap values of kitchen and bedroom were 557.7 times and 153.5 times higherthan those of the indoorairstandard forBap, respectively.

  Conclusion   Indoorairpollution from coal burningis very severe in rural areas of Shanxi province, especially forB(a)Pcontamination in winter.