About

Ajay Pillarisetti is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. He holds a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from UC Berkeley, an MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University, and a BS in Biology from Emory University. His research focuses on the impacts of household energy use and related behaviors in low- and middle-income countries on air pollution exposure, human health, and climate change. Dr. Pillarisetti has extensive global environmental health research, practice, and capacity building experience across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Environmental science
• Economics
• Environmental health
• Business
• Computer Science
• Natural resource economics
• Environmental protection
• Environmental economics
• Engineering
• Biology
• Materials science
• Environmental engineering
• Geography
• Human–computer interaction
• Toxicology
• Environmental planning
• Waste management
• Chemistry

Selected publications

• Early-life liquefied petroleum gas cooking intervention and lung function in Guatemalan children: A randomized clinical trial

  Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2026-04-17

  article

  RATIONALE: Household air pollution is a risk factor for obstructive lung diseases. OBJECTIVES: We estimated the effect of an early-life liquefied petroleum gas cooking intervention on childhood lung function. METHODS: The multi-country Household Air Pollution Intervention Network trial randomized 800 pregnant women (9-19 weeks gestation, 18-34 years) in Guatemala to receive a gas cookstove and free fuel intervention or continue cooking with biomass until the child is aged 1 year. The present analysis includes only Guatemalan children. At age 3 years, we measured lung function using oscillometry at 7-41 Hertz (Tremoflo C-100, Thorasys). Outcomes were resistance and reactance at 7 Hertz, area of reactance, resistance at 19 Hertz, resistance difference between 7 and 19 Hertz, and, as exploration, resistance across frequencies. Upper airway artifacts were removed using Tremoflo software. The effect of the intervention was estimated using linear regression models, unadjusted and adjusted (height, weight, age, sex). Children with respiratory infections during a 7-day recall period were excluded. RESULTS: Valid oscillometry was obtained from 525/750 (70%) 3-year-olds. Among the 225 missed oscillometry tests, 129/750 (17%) were due to the children not being willing to perform the measurements. We did not find evidence of an effect on prespecified oscillometry outcomes. Exploratory analysis suggested that resistance across the frequency spectrum was lower in intervention than control participants (adjusted difference: -0.31 cmH2O*S/L, 95% CI: -0.59, -0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Gas cooking compared to biomass cooking from mid-gestation through infancy was not associated with improved prespecified oscillometry outcomes in 3-year-old children. However, lowered resistance across all frequencies in the intervention arm suggests the intervention may have positively impacted airway caliber. Further studies are warranted, including exposure-response analysis and lung function trajectories.

  PublisherDOI

• Household air pollution exposure is associated with perturbations in metabolic pathways in human milk: An observational untargeted metabolomics analysis from Guatemala

  Environmental Research · 2026-01-06

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Optimizing Exposure Measures in Large-Scale Household Air Pollution Studies: Results from the Multicountry HAPIN Trial

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2025-01-14 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Repeated measurements of household air pollution may provide better estimates of average exposure but can add to costs and participant burden. In a randomized trial of gas versus biomass cookstoves in four countries, we took supplemental personal 24-h measurements on a 10% subsample for mothers and infants, interspersed between protocol samples. Mothers had up to five postrandomization protocol measurements over 16 months, while infants had three measurements over one year. For the subsample, we added up to 6 supplemental postrandomization samples for mothers and 3 for infants, measuring PM2.5, black carbon (BC) (mothers only), and carbon monoxide (CO) at each visit. 310 mothers had both protocol (n = 1026) and supplemental (n = 1099) valid exposure measurements. For children, supplemental data sufficient for analysis were collected in only two countries; 94 infants had both protocol (n = 317) and supplemental (n = 234) samples. The geometric means for protocol and supplemental samples for mothers for PM2.5 were 37 μg/m3 and 38 μg/m3, respectively, while for infants, they were 42 μg/m3 and 46 μg/m3. Mixed models comparing supplemental to protocol samples, controlling for covariates, found few differences between protocol and supplemental samples. Supplemental analyses among control mothers with complete protocol measurements found that an average of three measurements explained 81% of the variance of the average of all six measurements.

  PublisherDOI

• Household Energy Use and Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Predictors of Personal Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter, Black Carbon, and Carbon Monoxide among Pregnant Women in Rwanda: Baseline Data from the HAPIN Trial

  Journal of Health and Pollution · 2025-01-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: Exposure to household air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels is a leading risk factor for death and disease in low- and middle-income countries, where cleaner cooking and lighting options are often unavailable. Few studies have measured personal exposure during pregnancy, a sensitive period of development, particularly in Africa. Objective: We aimed to characterize exposure during early to midpregnancy among women in Rwanda and to assess predictors of personal exposure, including stove and fuel type, cooking behaviors, housing conditions, sociodemographic characteristics, and other potential sources of exposure. Methods: and the Bayesian information criterion). Results: , 36% in BC, and 31% in CO concentrations. Conclusions: concentrations, but overall, substantial unexplained variability remained. https://doi.org/10.1289/JHP1049.

  PublisherDOI

• Gestational and postnatal exposures to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and their association with acute ear infections, diarrhea, respiratory symptoms, and mortality: A longitudinal study of infants in the multicountry Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial

  Environmental Research · 2025-07-02

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Household Air Pollution Exposure in Adult Women is Associated with Increased Carotid Intima-Media Thickness: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network Trial

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• [RETRACTED] Scoping Review of Cook Stove Interventions in Africa: Exposure Contrasts and Future Steps v1

  2025-06-10

  preprintOpen access

  [RETRACTED] Objective: To synthesize existing evidence and gaps through a scoping review of cleaner fuel and modified cook stove interventions in households in Africa regarding changes in concentrations of particulate matter of size 2.5μm (PM2.5), black carbon (BC), and/or carbon monoxide (CO) in the cooking area and/or personal exposures, when compared to traditional cooking methods, such as three stone fire or traditional biomass cook stoves. Introduction: In Africa, solid biomass fuel is frequently used for household cooking, heating, and lighting. This fuel produces hazardous levels of household air pollution (HAP), such as PM2.5, BC, and CO, which can cause significant morbidity and mortality when inhaled. Due to the fact that women spend a disproportionate amount of time in the home cooking or assisting with household activities, it is known that women of childbearing age and young children carry the largest burden of HAP exposure and exposure to HAPs in general. Individuals are especially susceptible to the negative effects of HAP exposure throughout important stages of organ development such as intrauterine, infancy, and early childhood. Socio-cultural factors can influence fuel/stove stacking and mixing (where traditional fuels/stoves are used alongside modern fuels/stoves), which can reduce HAP levels to below World Health Organization indoor air quality (WHO-IAQ) guideline levels. Economic development is ultimately associated with clean fuel transitions. There are many different cleaner fuel options available to reduce HAP exposure levels in the home setting, including improved cook stoves, solar stoves, improved biomass fuels, and behavioral changes. For instance, LPG has the potential to lower HAP levels below WHO-IAQ guideline levels, but not all interventions do so or interim targets. As a result, these interventions are typically harm mitigation measures, with some interventions not even lowering exposure levels. Additional obstacles to the adoption, uptake, and sustained usage of interventions include the cost and accessibility of fuel, cultural and societal preferences, or a lack of funding.

  PublisherDOI

• Powering Health with Energy in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Beyond Access: Clean Energy use in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• William Checkley

  Johns Hopkins University

  98 shared

• Kalpana Balakrishnan

  Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research

  91 shared

• Jennifer L. Peel

  Colorado State University

  81 shared

• Thomas Clasen

  University of Georgia

  77 shared

• John P. McCracken

  University of Georgia

  76 shared

• Lisa M. Thompson

  Emory University

  71 shared

• Anaité Díaz-Artiga

  Universidad del Valle de Guatemala

  71 shared

• Ghislaine Rosa

  70 shared