The Third World Cookstove Problem - Premature Deaths and Climate Change

The World Health Organization calls the Third World cookstove problem a "killer in the kitchen." The WHO estimates 1.5 million annual premature deaths due to household solid fuel use. In addition to causing respiratory illnesses, solid cookstove fuels used by 3 billion people, half of the world's population, emit a "cocktail" of pollutants, including black carbon and CO2, a greenhouse gas responsible in part for climate change.

According to a recent EPA "Science Matters" newsletter, a household cooking fire can produce "about as much carbon dioxide as a car." They believe "reducing these emissions may be among the fastest, cheapest ways to fight global climate change."

The Third World Cookstove Problem

Daily food preparation in developed countries is high tech when compared to Third World cookstove use. Americans use modern appliances. We burn gas, oil or electricity to generate energy. When an American family cooks over an open flame it's for backyard entertainment or for the fun of roughing it on a camping trip.

Third World populations, such as those in South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, rely on indoor open flames and inefficient cookstoves. For many of these populations indoor cooking means burning wood, dung, coal, or other solid fuels. Women and children, those most likely to inhabit these homes during the day, endure pollution exposures equal to smoking 2 packs of cigarettes per day. In cookstove homes, children die due to pneumonia, and adults die due to chronic respiratory disease.

A recent EPA News Release explained that annually "..the effects of indoor smoke from wood and other basic fuels kill as many people as HIV/AIDS, significantly more people than tuberculosis, and over two times more people than malaria. Cleaner cooking practices also will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and black carbon, which contribute to climate change."

Third World Cookstove Solutions

"Fuel For Life: Household Energy and Health," a 2006 World Health Organization report, detailed the cookstove problem, as well as ongoing and planned interventions. These include:

-Cleaner burning fuels

-Improved stoves

-Improved housing ventilation: chimneys, smoke hoods, eaves spaces and changes in windows

-Changes in user behavior: drying wood for improved combustion, keeping children away from smoke

Some worldwide cookstove improvement programs have established 2011 as the goal year for improving cooking conditions in at least 4 million households. Projects in China, India and Africa have been undertaking the cookstove challenge since the 1980s. Improvements in household ventilation is one positive result of these efforts; but until all populations have access to cleaner burning fuel, the pollution is merely being shifted from indoors to out.

In September, EPA administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and others in announcing the formation of the partnership, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. For this public/private initiative, the State Department, the United Nations Foundation, the U.S. EPA and other "alliance partners " will join forces to address the worldwide cookstove problem. One goal is to undertake efforts designed to pave the way for 100 million households to adopt clean cookstoves by 2020.

To aid in this effort, the U.S. government pledged $53.32 million dollars over the next five years. The EPA will contribute $6 million. According to Administrator Jackson the group will focus on stove testing and evaluation, cookstove design innovation and health benefits assessments.

They believe their efforts will "save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women, and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions.."

Source:

Fuel For Life: Household Energy and Health
http://www.who.int/indoorair/publications/fuelforlife/en/index.html

Household Energy, Indoor Pollution and Health

http://www.who.int/indoorair/publications/fflsection1.pdf

EPA News Release 9 21, 2010