News

Health

The Problem

Three billion people around the world depend on food cooked over polluting open fires or inefficient stoves.⁵ Exposure to HAP from burning wood, charcoal, coal, and kerosene is a leading risk factor for diseases including childhood pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, ischemic heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.⁶ There is emerging evidence that when pregnant women are exposed to HAP, their infants are at increased risk for stillbirth, low birth weight, and decreased lung function.⁷ Emissions from household cooking are a significant source of ambient air pollution and a major contributor to climate change.⁸ Globally, as many as four million people die prematurely every year from illnesses attributable to HAP.⁹

Clean Cooking Solutions

Replacing polluting open fires or inefficient stoves with cleaner, more modern stoves and fuels reduces emissions and personal exposure, thereby lowering the burden of disease associated with HAP.¹⁰ Research suggests that significant exposure reductions are required to measurably reduce negative health impacts. Therefore, substantial improvements in health can only be achieved with intensive, near-exclusive use of the lowest emission cookstoves and fuels.¹¹ Randomized controlled trials of near-exclusive use have shown reductions in severe pneumonia in young children and reduced duration of respiratory infections in children. Additionally, emerging research about pregnancy indicates that switching to cleaner technologies and fuels lowers blood pressure in pregnant women, increases the baby's birth weight, and increases the baby's gestational age at delivery.¹² Achieving these positive health outcomes requires driving consumer demand for cleaner, more modern stoves and fuels; mobilizing investment to build a pipeline of scalable businesses capable of delivering affordable, appropriate, high-quality clean cooking products; and fostering an enabling environment for industry growth. 

Sources: 

¹WHO, 2016: https://www.who.int/gho/phe/indoor_air_pollution/burden/en/
²IHME, 2013: https://www.healthdata.org/news-release/first-time-environmental-air-pollution-emerges-leading-risk-factor-stroke-worldwide
³Various Sources, many outlined here: https://www.harpnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/f1-HAP-Briefer-DIGITAL.pdf
⁴Various Sources, many outlined here: https://www.harpnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/f1-HAP-Briefer-DIGITAL.pdf
⁵WHO, 2018 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-air-pollution-and-health
⁶WHO, 2018 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-air-pollution-and-health
⁷Various Sources, many outlined here: https://www.harpnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/f1-HAP-Briefer-DIGITAL.pdf
⁸Various Sources, including: Bond et. al., 2013: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jgrd.50171 ; https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/853479/icode/ ; Bailis et al, 2015: Rob Bailis of Stockholm Environment Institute, researched funded by the Global Alliance and published in Nature and Climate Change in 2015 https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2491
⁹WHO, 2016: https://www.who.int/gho/phe/indoor_air_pollution/burden/en/
¹⁰Various Sources, many outlined here: https://www.harpnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/f1-HAP-Briefer-DIGITAL.pdf
¹¹WHO, 2014: https://www.who.int/airpollution/guidelines/household-fuel-combustion/en/
¹²Various Sources, many outlined here: https://www.harpnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/f1-HAP-Briefer-DIGITAL.pdf