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About one million children die every year because of indoor pollution due to open fires are used for cooking and heating. A recently completed PhD study by Esperanza Diaz, UiB, shows that improved stoves with ventilation and chimneys could save many lives.
Three billion people in the poorer parts of the world - almost half of the world's population - use firewood or other forms of biomass fuels for cooking and heating. Every year 1, 5 million die because of poor indoor air quality. One million are small children.
- Smoke from open fires used for cooking and heating affects particularly women and children. Women develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) over time and children are often sick with pneumonia - both pneumonia and COPD are conditions which lead to an early death. Women also experience eye discomfort, headache and back pains (from leaning down beside the open fire), explains Esperanza Diaz, who recently defended her PhD dissertation at the University of Bergen.
The dissertation is based on a research project among Mayan women in Guatemala, and shows that when improved brick stoves with a ventilating chimney replace the open fires, respiratory health is significantly improved.
Simple measures help
More than 500 women and their children participated in the study. Half of the women received brick stoves with a chimney, while the other half continued using the traditional open fires. The investigations were carried out on the Guatemalan highlands. For a year and a half respiratory health and other symptoms among women were studied by UiB researchers.
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- The results showed that where we replaced the open fires with brick walls, respiratory symptoms were reduced, affirms Diaz.
The researchers also observed an improvement in prevalence of eye discomfort and headaches - and the study shows that simple, cost effective measures can improve the respiratory health of those who use traditional open fires for cooking and heating.
- A stove costs around 100 US dollar, which is not much according to western living standards, but for those who need them, it is impossible to come by this amount of money. We hope that the World Health Organization would continue working on this field and implement actions, says Diaz.
But even if the stoves should be subsidized, price reductions are not enough for people to begin to use the new systems:
- Open fires have been used for cooking and heating for thousands and years and are not associated with health problems by the users - conversely, some disadvantages are found from the use of the improved stoves, such as a longer required time for cutting wood into smaller pieces than typically used in open fires, difficulties cooking with big clay pots and with cooking animal food, lower kitchen temperatures, longer cooking time and reduced light from the fire, says Diaz.
- The stoves will probably not be used over a long period, if you only deliver the stoves. If the stoves are to be part of the daily lives of a family, the families need to be followed up over time and the disadvantages need to be addressed appropriately to ensure the women continue using their new stoves.
The study, which was the first of its kind, could not prove any difference in the lung functions between the women who used the new stoves and the ones who used traditional cooking and heating methods. Diaz finds two reasons for this:
-The average age of the women was 28 years, and most of them had not yet developed serious lung disease. Also we had only 18 months to complete the study, which is too short time to measure the impact on chronic lung diseases. We therefore hope to be granted funding to continue research in the field, says Diaz
Esperanza Diaz defended her PhD dissertation 21st November 2008. The title was "Impact of reducing indoor air pollution on women's health". She participated in the international research project "RESPIRE: Randomnised Exposure of Pollution Indoors and Repiratory Effects". Diaz was born in Madrid, Spain, and studied medicine at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, graduating in 1995 and specializing in general practice and in 1999. She has lived in Norway since 1999, working as a general practitioner and, from 2004 also as a PhD student (50%) at the Department of Public Health and Primary Health.
Diaz, E., N. Bruce, et al. (2008). "Self-rated health among Mayan women participating in a randomised intervention trial reducing indoor air pollution in Guatemala." BMC International Health and Human Rights 8(7).
Díaz, E., N. G. Bruce, et al. (2007). "Lung function and symptoms among Indigenous Mayan women exposed to high levels of indoor air pollution." International Journal for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases 11(12): 1372-1379.
Díaz, E., T. Smith-Sivertsen, et al. (2007). "Eye Discomfort, Headache and Back Pain among Mayan Guatemalan Women taking part in a Randomised Stove Intervention." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61: 74-79.