How Cookstoves Research is Changing the World | Source: American Thoracic Society News, March 2015.
Three billion people in the world, a number unchanged in nearly 30 years, cook their food with an open fire, causing respiratory problems such as pneumonia in children and COPD and lung cancer in adults, as well as cardiovascular diseases. Estimates in 2012 from the Global Burden of Disease project, indicate that smoke from these traditional cooking methods causes a staggering four million premature deaths each year.
Until the last decade, this major health issue had gone largely unnoticed by most medical scientists and public health experts. ATS members, in collaboration with organizations, government officials, and institutions across the world, have played important roles in describing the health impacts of cook smoke, conducting clinical trials with cleaner-burning biomass stoves, and highlighting gaps in knowledge of the problem. In recent months, their efforts have gained momentum.
Their findings have contributed to the publication of the World Health Organization’s Indoor Air Quality Guidelines, a report on childhood pneumonia from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, and a Lancet Respiratory Household Air Pollution (HAP) Commission.
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