THE IMPORTANCE OF CLEANER FUELS

How much of an improvement in health can cookstove technologies and fuels contribute to? That is the key question researchers are examining across wide geographies and cooking technologies.

In order to address the 4 million premature deaths caused by household air pollution each year, the Alliance is working closely with our partners to create effective strategies to scale up the dissemination of cleaner burning fuels and efficient stoves for household cooking.  The Alliance continues to work with its partners to build evidence that switching from inefficient and polluting cooking fuels and technologies to cleaner ones will reduce respiratory diseases and other health impacts.

Preliminary exposure results from Alliance-supported child survival research studies in Ghana, Nigeria, and Nepal were unveiled at a special symposium held in Seattle at the annual meeting of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE), the premier technical conference for environmental health researchers.  Results indicate substantial reductions in exposure associated with the adoption of cleaner cookstoves and fuels.  Moreover, researchers reported high rates of study compliance, and solid evidence that study participants were actively using the intervention stoves.  There were also discussions on the implication of these results for achieving the World Health Organizations (WHO) indoor air quality guidelines for household fuel combustion, with a special emphasis on estimating the impact of ‘stove stacking’, or continued use of traditional cookstoves, on the ability to meet air quality guidelines.

These study results will have far reaching implications for Alliance focus countries such as Ghana, Kenya, China, and India, where policy makers and health professionals are well-positioned to increase awareness of the links between household air pollution, fuel switching, and health.  For example, given Ghana’s commitment to scaling adoption of clean cookstoves, and providing 50% of the population with access to clean fuels by 2020, the study will provide policy-relevant information for Ghana and the broader global public health community.