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Letter to the editor

Smoky kitchens quietly kill 1.5-million annually worldwide

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 14, 2007

HANOI, Vietnam - Luong Van Inh is among a neglected group of Asians threatened by an environmental hazard rarely considered: indoor air pollution. Caused by burning wood, coal or other cheap fuels in kitchens, it kills about 1.5-million people worldwide each year.

Inh's wheezing gasps and the gritty soot covering his tiny kitchen are testament to the damage caused from decades of cooking over a wood fire with no chimney to draw out the billowing smoke. He has lived in the stilt house in the impoverished northern mountain town of Dien Bien Phu since birth.

"I have had asthma since I was young, but the problem has been getting worse," said Inh, 70, who shuns cigarettes but has hovered over the kitchen stove preparing meals for his family since his wife died 25 years ago.

Up to 3-billion people around the world rely on solid fuels such as wood, coal, crop waste or animal dung for indoor cooking and heating. The resulting smoke ranks as the fourth-biggest health risk in the poorest countries, yet it is typically overlooked.

The Lancet medical journal highlighted the problem this week in a series on energy and health. One article stressed that improved stoves with chimneys could reduce exposure to indoor smoke by 30 to 50 percent.

"Most people would not be able to imagine what it's like to live in a smoky hut," said Eva Rehfuess of the World Health Organization's Partnership for Clean Indoor Air. "It's 10 times worse than the most polluted cities."

Women and children are the hardest-hit because they are at home the most. Mothers in many developing countries cook with their babies strapped to their backs, exposing their infants' lungs to the smoke.

Indoor air pollution has received scant attention even though it kills up to 800,000 children each year, mainly from pneumonia.

[Last modified September 13, 2007, 23:42:59]