Household air pollution

Abstract

Worldwide, around 2.3 billion people still cook using solid fuels (such as wood, crop waste, charcoal, coal and dung) and kerosene in open fires and inefficient stoves (1). Most of these people are poor and live in low- and middle-income countries. There is a large discrepancy in access to cleaner cooking alternatives between urban and rural areas: in 2021, only 14% of people in urban areas relied on polluting fuels and technologies, compared with 49% of the global rural population. Household air pollution is generated by the use of inefficient and polluting fuels and technologies in and around the home that contains a range of health-damaging pollutants, including small particles that penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can have levels of fine particles 100 times higher than acceptable. Exposure is particularly high among women and children, who spend the most time near the domestic hearth. Reliance on polluting fuels and technologies also require significant time for cooking on an inefficient device, and gathering and preparing fuel.