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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 14:39:01 |
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - 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.
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