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Use efficient fuel for cooking and avoid indoor pollution
A significant part of the cooking here is still with solid fuel, especially among the economically weaker sections. This is largely due to the relatively easy availability of solid fuel and the expenses involved in the more efficient and clean LPG. In both rural and urban areas, many depend on solid fuel, collected laboriously at times, for cooking and heating water. Unfortunately, not much has been done to curb this practice that is harmful to health because of the indoor
air pollution it causes.
“In the absence of alternative, efficient sources, solid fuel is the only option left to these people”, says K.R. Satheesh Kumar, CEO, Enzen Global Solutions, an energy and environment consulting firm. “And this is leading to both environmental damage and health hazards.”
According to the World Health Organisation, indoor air pollution due to biomass smoke is one of the largest environmental risk factors for ill health of any kind. As per the last census data, 90 per cent of rural households and 72.3 per cent of the total households in India still rely on solid bio-fuel for domestic cooking needs. In urban areas, there has been a considerable increase in the share of LPG as a cooking fuel. Nevertheless, poor households in urban areas still use solid biomass fuels or kerosene in poorly ventilated kitchens, where the levels of pollutants would be much higher.
Health hazards
Combustion of these fuels in traditional, low-efficiency devices emits considerable quantities of pollutants such as particulates, carbon monoxide (CO), polycyclic organic matter and formaldehyde. In poorly ventilated households, concentrations of some of these pollutants are 10 to 100 times the standard.
Indoor air pollution constitutes the third most important risk factor (next to poor water and sanitation, and malnutrition) of ill health and is responsible for 17 per cent of all deaths among children under five in India.
Switching from solid unprocessed biomass fuels to more efficient clean fuels such as LPG and biogas can reduce indoor air pollution levels substantially and improve the health of many poor people.
However, the switch towards cleaner fuel is progressing at a slow pace. In addition to the clean fuel options, interventions such as improved stoves with high efficiency, improved ventilation and behavioural change can help in reducing the exposure to indoor air pollution levels.
MYTHILI G. NIRVAN
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