PHA-Exchange> INDOOR AIR POLLUTION - THE KILLER IN THE KITCHEN

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel at undp.org>
> > *INDOOR AIR POLLUTION - THE KILLER IN THE KITCHEN
> > *
> > - The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations 
> > Development Programme (UNDP) are marking World Rural Women's Day on 15 
> > October 2004 by drawing attention to indoor air pollution - one of the 
> > major causes of death and disease in the world's poorest countries. 
> > While the millions of deaths from well-known communicable diseases 
> > often make headlines, indoor air pollution remains a silent and 
> > unreported killer. Rural women and children are the most at risk.
> >
> > Thick acrid smoke rising from stoves and fires inside homes is 
> > associated with around 1.6 million deaths per year in developing 
> > countries - that's one life lost every 20 seconds to the killer in the 
> > kitchen.
> >
> > Nearly half of the world continues to cook with solid fuels such as 
> > dung, wood, agricultural residues and coal. Smoke from burning these 
> > fuels gives off a poisonous cocktail of particles and chemicals that 
> > bypass the body's defences and more than doubles the risk of 
> > respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and pneumonia.
> >
> > The indoor concentration of health-damaging pollutants from a typical 
> > wood-fired cooking stove creates carbon monoxide and other noxious 
> > fumes at anywhere between seven and 500 times over the allowable 
> > limits (see table below).
> >
> > Day in day out, and for hours at a time, rural women and their 
> > children in particular are subjected to levels of smoke in their homes 
> > that far exceed international safety standards. The World Energy 
> > Assessment (1) estimates that the amount of smoke from these fires is 
> > the equivalent of consuming two packs of cigarettes a day - and yet, 
> > these families are faced with what amounts to a non-choice - not 
> > cooking using these fuels, or not eating.
> >
> > Rural women and their families also pay a high economic price for 
> > keeping the fire burning. Up to three mornings a week are spent 
> > collecting fuel such as wood. This perpetual toil denies poor rural 
> > women the chance to be more productive through paid work that would 
> > raise their family's income, improve the standard of living and 
> > enhance their nutritional and health status. And in the 
> > crisis-stricken Darfur region of Sudan, the chore has taken on a 
> > perilous dimension following the rape, kidnap, beatings and murder of 
> > women leaving refugee camps to search for wood.
> >
> > So what can be done to put an end to indoor air pollution? Finding 
> > cleaner solutions is the main challenge. Gases, liquids and 
> > electricity are the main alternatives. Although today these energy 
> > sources derive mainly from fossil fuels, this needs not be the case in 
> > the future when renewable energies may ease the pressure on natural 
> > ecosystems. Other steps include the recognition and action by 
> > governments, the aid community, civil society and other key actors 
> > that indoor smoke is a huge blight on the lives of rural women and 
> > their children.
> >
> > Two years ago, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) 
> > in Johannesburg the Global Partnership for Clean Indoor Air was 
> > launched with the backing of WHO and the international community. As 
> > such, a growing network of experts and organizations are responding to 
> > the challenge by finding innovative and affordable solutions that 
> > deploy cleaner stoves, fuels and smoke hoods. Their implementation 
> > will require the development of viable and sustainable markets, as 
> > created through the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Rural Energy 
> > Challenge for LPG delivery and consumption, a public-private 
> > partnership including UNDP, also established at the WSSD. But this is 
> > just the beginning. WHO recently published the first-ever 
> > comprehensive Atlas of Children's Environmental Health as a means of 
> > drawing attention to and increasing support for reducing indoor air 
> > pollution (and other environmental health issues). We need the same 
> > attention paid to this "killer in the kitchen" as is paid to other 
> > major killers.
> >
> >  1. The World Energy Assessment is a joint publication of UNDP, the UN 
> > Department for Economic & Social Affairs and the World Energy Council