UN Commission on Sustainable Development, 14th Session

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Smoke in the KitchenHealth Impacts ofIndoor Air
Pollutionin Developing Countries

• UN Commission on Sustainable Development, 14th
  Session
• Partnerships Fair, 2 May 2006
• Eva Rehfuess
• Programme on Indoor Air Pollution
• World Health Organization

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Prabir Mallik/The World Bank
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What is the problem?

• Some 3 billion people rely on solid fuels (e.g.
  dung, wood, agricultural residues, charcoal,
  coal) for their basic energy needs.
• Cooking and heating with solid fuels leads to
  high levels of indoor smoke, a complex mix of
  health-damaging pollutants (including small
  particles, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides).
• Typical small particle levels (PM10) in biomass
  fuel-using home 1000 µg/m3European Union
  standard 50 µg/m3

Nigel Bruce/ITDG
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Who is most at risk?
WHO, Fuel for Life Household Energy and Health
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What are the health impacts?
Smith, Mehta and Feuz, 2004
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Who is most affected?
HighlyNeglectedIssue!

• 1.5 million annual deaths
• in the poorest countries
• gt 800 000 among children
• gt 500 000 among women

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What is the link between indoor smoke and the
Millennium Development Goals?
"We will spare no effort to free our fellow men,
women and children from the abject and
dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to
which more than a billion of them are currently
subjected." United Nations Millennium Development
Declaration, signed by all 191 Member States of
the United Nations in September 2000
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What does the World Health Organization do?

• Documenting the health burden of indoor air
  pollution and household energye.g. assessment of
  the burden of disease

• Evaluating the effectiveness of technical
  solutions and their implementatione.g. catalogue
  of methods regional training workshops

• Monitoring changes in household energy habits
  over timee.g. MDG indicator on solid fuel use

• Acting as the global advocate for health as a
  central component of international/national
  energy policiese.g. cost-benefit analysis of
  household energy interventions Ministerial
  side-event on household energy and health

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4000 deaths a day from cooking fires? Let's
prevent them!
CSD-14, New York, Conference Room 2 11 May 2006,
615 pm 745 pm


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• For more information, please contact
• Eva Rehfuess
• Programme on Indoor Air Pollution
• World Health Organization
• 1211 Geneva 27
• Switzerland
• Email rehfuesse_at_who.int
• http//www.who.int/indoorair

Nigel Bruce/ITDG