Better Burning, Better Breathing: Improving Health with Cleaner Cook Stoves

Cooking styles can contribute significantly to indoor air quality. In other parts of the world where cooking is done in clay stoves, the soot blankets the walls and contributes to a number of diseases. This author notes that the amount of smoke village women inhale from cooking is equel to two packs of cigarettes a day. Researchers now say that "smoke flowing from open fires and old-fashioned cook stoves. Most—about 90%—is carbon monoxide (CO). The rest is a mix of volatile organic compounds, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, metals, and particulate matter including PM10 (which easily penetrates airways) and PM2.5 (the smaller fraction, which penetrates deep into the lungs). According to Fuel for Life, 24-hour levels of PM10 in homes that use solid fuels routinely reach 300–3,000 µg/m3 and may spike to 10,000 μg/m3 during cooking. By comparison, the WHO recommends no more than an annual mean of 20 µg/m3 and a 24-hour mean of 50 µg/m3 for PM10."

Environmental Health Perspectives: Better Burning, Better Breathing: Improving Health with Cleaner Cook Stoves: "Better Burning, Better Breathing: Improving Health with Cleaner Cook Stoves"