Cleaner cookstoves can boost health and slow global warming
Monday, November 4, 2013
“The health of people around the world will improve greatly if we reduce emissions of black carbon and methane. Limiting these emissions will be an important contributor to the fight against climate change,” said Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank. “The damage from indoor cooking smoke alone is horrendous – every year, 4 million people die from exposure to the smoke. With cleaner air, cities will become more productive, food production will increase and children will be healthier.”
The death toll of from cookstoves using wood, charcoal, dung and crop residues exceeds the World Health Organisation’s estimate of annual deaths from HIV and Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined. Once lodged in the lungs, superfine particles, which include soot, cannot be coughed out, creating the conditions for disease.
Cookstove reduction measures offer by far the greatest potential benefits to human health and in slowing cryosphere warming, said the World Bank.
Source: The Guardian (link opens in a new window)
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