2010-10-04

Providing Cleaner Cookstoves. By Amy Yee, NYTimes, 9/30/10. "Each year more than 1.5 million people worldwide die prematurely from lung cancer, emphysema, childhood pneumonia and other ailments caused by indoor air pollution -- fumes from open cooking fires -- according to the World Health Organization. In addition, millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are generated every year because about three billion people worldwide rely on open cooking fires. The easy solution would be to switch to cleaner fuel, like liquefied petroleum gas or kerosene. But these fuels are too expensive for many people in developing countries.

"Groups like Envirofit, a nonprofit organization based in Colorado, are offering another solution: clean cookstoves. Envirofit says that its stoves reduce harmful emissions 80% compared with traditional cooking fires, use 60% less fuel and cut cooking time 50%. In addition to creating a healthier environment at home, women and children can devote less time to foraging for fuel… The push for clean cookstoves to reduce indoor air pollution was elevated from a public health backwater to a high place on the global agenda last week, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of the United States kicked off the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves in New York, at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. The $60 million public-private campaign, led by the United Nations Foundation, aims to have 100 million households using clean, efficient cookstoves by 2020."

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