The Solution: Modern Cleaner Cookstoves

We will follow this report this week and post the 'solutions' that may be helpful to you!  Bless you - we love you guys.

News from “Be the Change” - http://saveone.net

 Indoor smoke from cooking, know as the “Kitchen Killer”, accounts for 1.6 million deaths annually and 2.7% of global disease. Throughout the week we will be looking at different designs for improved cookstoves that can help play a role in improving the health in half the people around the world.

The World Health Organization has found that indoor air pollution from cooking is one of the top ten global health risks.
More than three billion people worldwide depend on solid fuels, including biomass (wood, dung and agricultural residues) and coal, to meet their most basic energy needs. The inefficient burning of solid fuels on an open fire or traditional stove indoors creates a dangerous cocktail of hundreds of pollutants, primarily carbon monoxide and small particles, but also nitrogen oxides, benzene, butadiene, formaldehyde, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and many other health-damaging chemicals. Day in day out, and for hours at a time, women and their small children breathe in amounts of smoke equivalent to consuming two packs of cigarettes per day.

Inhaling indoor smoke doubles the risk of pneumonia and other acute infections of the lower respiratory tract among children under five years of age. Women exposed to indoor smoke are three times more likely to suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), such as chronic bronchitis or emphysema, than women who cook with electricity, gas or other cleaner fuels. And coal use doubles the risk of lung cancer, particularly among women.

Yet, these families are faced with an impossible dilemma: don't cook with solid fuels, or don't eat a cooked meal. 

Practical solutions to the indoor smoke problem must reduce pollution levels substantially to curb disease. Switching from wood, dung or charcoal to more efficient modern fuels, such as kerosene, LPG and biogas, brings about the largest reductions in indoor smoke. Also changing behaviors can also reduce exposure to indoor smoke. Many alternative cookers are currently on the market, with more popping up every day. 

Alternative Clean Cookers Include:
Briquettes and Pellets
Solar Cookers
Biogas
Liquified Petroleum Gas
Natural Gas 
Solar Cookers
Modern Biofuels 
Electric