What is a Household Air Quality Indicator?

What is Household Air Quality? Cooking over open fires or in simple stoves exposes household members to pollutants on a daily basis. Household Air Pollution is the percentage of population using solid fuel as the primary cooking fuel. People Using Non-Solid Fuel Such as electricity, LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas), and natural gas People Using Solid Fuel Biomass such as wood, crop residues, dung, charcoal, and coal Sources Solid fuels include biomass fuels, such as wood, charcoal, crops or other agricultural waste, dung, shrubs and straw, and coal. Wood Coal Crops Straw Dung Harmful Effects Incomplete Combustion Although biomass fuels contain few actual contaminants, they produce substantial pollution mainly as a result of incomplete combustion in traditional stoves and open fires. Unfortunately, since people in developing countries rarely have access to advanced stoves, cooking with biomass exposes them to harmful pollutants. Complete Safe CO Incomplete Unsafe Countries Burning More Than 50% Biomass for Cooking Fuel Developing Countries Data from 2004-2008 Household air pollution is one of the most important causes of poor health in developing countries. Women & Children Particularly for women and children, who are most impacted by household air quality, it's the second most important risk factor for women and girls. Countries Burning More than 50% for Cooking Fuel Countries Burning less than 50% for Cooking Fuel Secondhand Household Air Pollution from Solid Fuels Active Smoking Smoking Higher Respiratory Daily Pollutant Concentration Levels Lower Respiratory Cooking with solid fuels over open fires or in simple stoves exposes household members to daily pollutant concentrations that lie between those of secondhand smoke and active smoking. For Adults For Children Increased mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer (where coal is used) Increased mortality from pneumonia and other acute lower respiratory diseases How do we know? Data from World Health Organization These data were collected from a total of 586 national country-year data points from household surveys in 155 countries. The rest of the data are generated from models predicting solid fuel use. Solid Fuels Liquid Fuels Gaseous Fuels Electricty People Exposed to Household Air Pollution The fraction of people exposed to household air pollution was assumed to be the same as the fraction of households using solid fuels. Households Using Solid Fuels How is the world doing? The number of people using solid fuel as cooking fuel has increased greatly. The absolute number of people using solid fuels has roughly doubled from 333 to 646 million from 1989 to 2010. 2010 1989 30 YEARS 333 million 646 million Environmental References Performance Index • World Health Organization. (2012). WHO Household energy database. Available: http://www.who.int/indoorair/ health_impacts/he_database/en/index.html. Last accessed: January 10, 2014. cBonjour et al. (2013). Solid fuel use for household cooking: Country and regional estimates for 1980-2010. Environmental Health Perspectives. 121(7): 784-790. • WHO Household Energy Database. World Health Organization (WHO). http://www.who.int/indoorai- r/health_impacts/he_databasecont/en/index.html