Ventilation: Cooking smoke killing 1.6 mln poor a year

A hidden killer: Smoky kitchens
Sept 13, 2007
Allison Lopez
Many Asians are threatened by an environmental hazard rarely considered: indoor air pollution. Caused by burning wood, coal or other cheap fuels in kitchens, it kills about 1.5 million people worldwide each year.
As many as 3 billion people rely on solid fuels such as wood, coal, crop waste or animal dung for indoor cooking and heating. The resulting smoke ranks as the fourth-biggest health risk in the poorest countries, yet it is typically overlooked.
The Lancet medical journal highlighted the problem this week. One article stressed that improved stoves with chimneys could reduce exposure to indoor smoke by 30 to 50 percent.
“Most people would not be able to imagine what it’s like to live in a smoky hut,” said Eva Rehfuess of the World Health Organization’s Partnership for Clean Indoor Air. “It’s 10 times worse than the most polluted cities.”
In 2002, nearly two-thirds of all global deaths linked to burning solid fuels were in the Asia-Pacific region.
Women and children are the hardest-hit because they are at home the most
TOP 10 POLLUTED CITIES OF THE WORLD
Cities in China, India and Azerbaijan were added to this year’s list of the world’s 10 most polluted places compiled by the New York-based Blacksmith Institute, an environmental group.
Tianjin in China, Sumgayit in Azerbaijan and India’s Vapi and Sukinda are the newcomers to the list, which also includes Chernobyl in Ukraine, Norilsk in Russia, Linfen in China, La Oroya in Peru, Dzerzhinsk in Russia and Kabwe in Zambia. The list is not ranked by the degree of pollution.
“Children are sick and dying in these polluted places, and it’s not rocket science to fix them,” said Richard Fuller, Blacksmith Institute’s founder and director.
The list is based on scoring criteria devised by an international panel, which includes researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and Mount Sinai Hospital. The methodology this year was refined to place more weight on the scale and toxicity of the pollution and on the numbers of people at risk, it said.

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Cooking smoke killing 1.6 mln poor a year
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March 19, 2007
Denise Linke
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NEW DELHI? – More than 1.6 million people are dying every year from the effects of breathing in poisonous smoke from animal dung, wood and coal used for cooking, experts said on Monday.

More than three billion people — half the world’s population — rely on the burning of solid fuels to prepare their meals because they cannot afford cleaner alternatives or don’t have access to electricity.

Environmental experts said in New Delhi the cooking smoke was killing women and children in India, China, Africa and elsewhere.

“There is an enormous massacre happening in the world, yet little attention is given to this,” said Ashok Khosla, chairman of Development Alternatives, an Indian voluntary group that promotes clean technology for rural communities.

“Most of those that suffer are women who cook in the rural kitchens of the Third World and their young children who spend much time indoors with their mothers.”

Burning solid fuels emits carbon monoxide, particulates, benzene and formaldehyde which can result in pneumonia, asthma, blindness, lung cancer, tuberculosis and low birth weight, the group says.

One person dies every 20 seconds from fuel-induced illness.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates India has one of the highest levels of indoor air pollution with more than 75 percent of households reliant on solid fuels.

Pollution levels in rural Indian kitchens were 30 times higher than recommended levels and six times higher than air pollution levels found in India’s capital, New Delhi, considered to be one of the most polluted cities in Asia.

As a result, 500,000 people die annually in India from burning solid fuels, said Uma Rajarathnam from The Energy and Resources Institute, one of India’s top environmental think-tanks.

Cooking stoves that allow people to burn solid fuels with fewer emissions are sold in parts of India but beginning at $7 were too expensive for most village households.

More commercial manufacturing had to be encouraged to bring down costs further and provide wider distribution, said Kurt Hoffman, director of the Shell Foundation, which has helped develop the cleaner stoves.

“It is a tragic irony that the very act of preparing food which is designed to aid and nurture a family is putting that very same family at risk,” said John Beale, an official at the United States Environmental Protection Agency.