Links to selected WHO reports on Indoor Air Pollution

– Evaluating household energy and health interventions: a catalogue of methods

– Evaluation of the costs and benefits of household energy and health interventions at global and regional levels

– Evaluation of the costs and benefits of household energy and health interventions at global and regional levels: Summary

– Fuel for life: household energy and health

– Guidelines for conducting cost–benefit analysis of household energy and health interventions

– Indoor air pollution. Book chapter in: Jamison et al., eds. Disease control priorities in developing countries. 2nd ed., World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2006.

– Indoor air pollution and child health in Pakistan, Meeting Report.

– Indoor air pollution from solid fuels and risk of low birth weight and stillbirth, Meeting Report

– Indoor air pollution and lower respiratory tract infections in children, Meeting Report

– Indoor air pollution: national burden of disease estimates

– Smoke and malaria: are interventions to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution likely to increase exposure to mosquitoes and malaria?

Duncan Clark – Efficient cooking stoves

Approximately half of the world’s population relies upon biomass fuels – such as wood, dung and agricultural wastes – for everyday tasks such as cooking, drying crops and purifying water. Although biomass fuel has the potential to be virtually carbon neutral, the demand for cooking wood is driving deforestation in some parts of the world.

In addition, if the biomass is burned in an open fire or a typical inefficient stove, the combustion produces not only CO2 but relatively large quantities of soot, as well as powerful greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide.

All of these particles and gases contribute to global warming and some are dangerous air pollutants that can lead to respiratory disease. Soot has a pivotal extra effect, too: it settles on glaciers and other areas of ice, darkening their surface and increasing the rate at which they melt.

Simple but super-efficient “rocket” stoves, of the type advocated in Manchester by Peter Scott, help tackle all of these problems. They reduce the amount of wood required, taking pressure off forests. They slash emissions of soot and greenhouse gases, reducing the climate change impact by more than 50%, and they reduce local air pollution, which helps limit the incidence of lung and eye disease. As a bonus, efficient stoves can significantly reduce the time that families need to spend gathering wood.

A simple but efficient “rocket” stove can be produced for as little as £4 ($7) and can save the equivalent of 1–3 tonnes of CO2 per year. This makes it one of the least expensive ways to tackle global warming, even before you consider the social benefits.

Link to Video – http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/13/manchester-report-stoves

Nature Conservancy – Deforestation Policy Brief

The Importance of Including Forest Degradation in a REDD Mechanism, June 2009 (pdf)

Excerpt – Fuelwood Management

Several strategies exist that are geared to alleviate the degrading pressures of fuelwood collection, which is a major driver of degradation and deforestation in several developing countries. The negative impacts of fuelwood collection can be mitigated through a variety of land management and improved cooking regimes,including:
1. Agroforestry: Employing systems that combine trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock to create more diverse, productive, and sustainable land-use systems that can provide food and income as well as fuelwood.
2. Afforestation/Reforestation: Planting trees on cleared or degraded lands to provide a new source of fuelwood for communities.
3. Windbreaks and windrows: Strategically planting trees or woody shrubs to protect crops from wind damage, improve productivity, and provide a source of fuelwood.
4. Fuelstoves: Replacing wood-burning stoves with models that burn other fuels, such as methane from agricultural waste, can reduce the need for fuelwood while improving indoor air quality