Household air pollution: About 2.3 billion people worldwide, or one third of the world’s population, still cook their food on stoves that run on open fires, kerosene, biomass, i.e. wood, animal excrement or coal. The resulting harmful indoor air pollution has adverse consequences on people’s health. You will also be shocked to see the WHO report on this. This harmful indoor air pollution not only harms people’s health but also proves fatal, especially for children.
This smoke is deadly to children
Even though technology has become very modern, from gas cylinder to air fryer, even today, around 2.3 billion people in the world are forced to cook food using chulha, stove or coal and wood. Most of these people are from the poor and lower classes. If we look at the WHO report, indoor air pollution was responsible for around 3.2 million deaths per year in 2020, including over 2 lakh 37,000 children under the age of 5.
Increased risk of these diseases due to household fuel
Household air pollution causes noncommunicable diseases including stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer.
If we look at the statistics, women and children are particularly affected by these diseases. Indoor air pollution includes a variety of pollutants that are harmful to health, including tiny particles that penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
Women and children cooking at the stove, hunting
In homes where there is no proper ventilation, smoke gets inside and then cannot get out completely. The risk is especially high for women and children, who spend the most time near the household stove. Indeed, when women in the house cook food on the stove or in an open fire, the smoke inside the house increases and this smoke is most harmful to the health of small children and even proves fatal.
Danger reduced after PM’s Ujjwala project
It is estimated that using LPG as cooking fuel would prevent around 1.5 lakh premature deaths due to pollution in 2019 alone, according to a report. The report also claims that the PM Ujjwala scheme helped prevent at least 1.8 million tonnes of PM2.5 emissions that year. There was a 13 per cent reduction in deaths due to air pollution, the report said.
WHO guidelines
To reduce household air pollution and protect health, it is necessary to increase the use of clean fuels and technologies. These include solar energy, electricity, biogas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas, fuel alcohol, as well as biomass stoves, which are safe according to WHO guidelines and whose use should be increased.
Disclaimer: Some of the information given in the news is based on media reports. Before implementing any suggestion, you must consult the concerned expert.
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