Indoor air pollution kills 1.5 million every year worldwide

dpa German Press Agency Published: Monday April 30, 2007

Geneva- Diseases attributed to the use of solid fuel in the
home are responsible for around 1.5 million deaths globally every
year, according to new estimates published by the World Health
Organization (WHO) on Monday.
They account for close to 5 per cent of death and disease in the
21 countries most affected by indoor air pollution: Afghanistan,
Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali,
Mauritania, Niger, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and
Uganda.

More than three billion people worldwide depend on solid fuels
including coal, as well as biomass (wood, dung and crop residues) for
cooking and heating. However use of such fuels has been linked to
numerous illnesses such as pneumonia, particularly in children, and
chronic respiratory diseases.

Up to 1.2 million of the deaths caused every year occur in
11 countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, China,
DR Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tanzania. Globally,
reliance on solid fuels is one of the 10 most important threats to
public health, said WHO.

"The prevention potential is enormous," said Susanne Weber-
Mosdorf, WHO's Assistant Director-General for Sustainable Development
and Healthy Environments.

"Solutions are available, and it is our international
responsibility to promote the health and well-being of those
affected, who are mostly women and children."

A shift towards cleaner and more efficient modern fuels such as
biogas and kerosene could largely eliminate this health risk.

Energy and environment ministers currently meeting at the United
Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-15) in New York
are to decide whether to recommend putting indoor air pollution on
national policy agendas.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

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