Kitchen smoke kills 4.24 lakh Indians every year

New Delhi, Mar 19 (UNI) Smoke from kitchen ''chullahs'' kill about 1.6 million people globally and over four lakh Indians every year due to pollution caused by burning biomass fuels such as dung, wood, crop residue and coal and these deaths could be easily prevented by creating awareness and using appropriate technologies, according to experts.

Indoor smoke was responsible for the death of one million children under five every year in the world and a major cause of mortality and morbidity among women who are exposed to particulate matter coming from the smoke during cooking causing acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer, they pointed out.

Among the poors throughout the developing world, exposure to indoor pollutants is often ten to hundred times higher than the World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines, said Uma Rajarathnam of TERI. In India about 424000 deaths occur due to indoor pollution, a majority of them among women and children in rural areas while the figure for the South East Asia was 522000.

IAP is responsible for 2.7% of the global burden of disease, making it one of the top ten global health risks while in the developing countries it was the most lethal killer after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe water and sanitation.

Children contribute 56% of all IAP attributable deaths as IAP exposure doubles the risk of pneumonia and is responsible for 900,000 of the 2 million annual deaths globally caused by pneumonia.

It is also responsible for 700,000 of the 2.7 million global deaths due to Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases such as bronchitis, she pointed out.

More than three billion people in the world burn solid fuel in their houses while India has the highest levels of Indoor Air Pollution with more than 75% of households using solid fuel for cooking which means that 130 million household gets affected by IAP.

''Indoor Air Pollution is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the world. The deaths caused by it are equal to two jumbo jets crashing every day. While so much hue and cry is made even if a mini plane with two people die, this major loss of life is overlooked,'' pointed out Mr Ashok Khosla, Chairman of the Development Alternatives and also Chairman and CEO of Technology and Action for Rural Advancement and TARAhaat Ltd.

However, this could be changed by using appropriate technologies like improved chullahs, biogas and converting crop residue into charcoal and then buring them, said Dr Priyadarshini Karve, Project Coordinator for the Commercialisation of Improved Biomass Fuels and Cooking Devices of India's Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI).

To create awareness anout the harmful effects of indoor pollution, the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air will hold its third Biennial Forum in Bangalore from tomorrow. More than 100 household energy and health leaders would gather at the four-day Forum to report on extraordinary results, celebrate breakthrough achievements and commit to attaining bold future goals to advance to the next stage of reducing indoor air pollution from cooking and cleaning and heating practices.

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