Contrary to all my blog posts on outdoor air pollution thus far, today I will be discussing on the less reported indoor air pollution that has been implicating poor households in developing countries such as Nepal and Africa. In these poverty-laden households, cooking is always done with open cooking stoves and the burning of solid fuels such as animal wastes.
The combustion of these solid fuels are highly inefficient and thus producing high amount of toxic gases such as carbon monoxide that can bind to haemoglobin in our blood and reduce the amount of oxygen that is delivered to our body tissues. In addition, other hazardous air pollutants such as PM2.5 are also liberated from these stoves, which are then inhaled mainly by women and children that spend more of their time at home. Pneumonia and lung cancer are highly associated with the inhalation of PM2.5. Poor ventilation in these houses further exacerbate the issue as these lethal air pollutants will accumulate and reach hazardous concentrations.
Many of these households are usually trapped in the poverty cycle and thus unable to afford efficient cooking stoves and fuels for cooking. Prolonged exposure to these harmful air pollutants from inefficient cooking stoves will then incur great health consequences and forbid them from working and escaping the poverty cycle.
Fortunately, there are available cheap and effective stove technologies to help reduce these hazardous indoor air pollutants. International organisations such as the Practical Action, have embarked on several projects to help install more inefficient cooking stoves in these households. Alleviation of indoor air pollution in developing countries is also one of the Millennium Development Goals.
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