Publication: Indoor Air Pollution, July 2002 : Energy and Health for the Poor
Date
2002-07
ISSN
Published
2002-07
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
In India, approximately 86 per cent of
rural households and 24 per cent of urban households rely on
solid biomass fuels for their cooking needs. These fuels
used in traditional stoves, in households often with little
ventilation, emit smoke containing significant quantities of
harmful pollutants in the immediate proximity of people
leading to serious health consequences. It is estimated that
up to 444,000 premature deaths in children under 5 years,
34,000 cases of chronic respiratory disease in women under
45 years and 800 cases of lung cancer are attributable to
exposure to Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) due to use of solid
fuels by households. While health risks drive policy
concerns, these are often difficult and costly to estimate.
Information on population exposure to IAP is a useful proxy
for health risks, and hence guide and facilitate mitigation
actions. Better information on patterns of exposure and its
determinants would assist in designing more effective
interventions and strategies. As part of World Bank's
study on Household Energy, Air Pollution and Health in
India, a pilot exercise was conducted in rural Andhra
Pradesh to collect quantitative evidence on the levels of
exposure to IAP and key factors influencing these levels.
This issue of the newsletter presents the results of this
study designed by the Center for Occupational and
Environmental Health, University of California, Berkeley
(USA), and undertaken in partnership with Sri Ramachandra
Medical College in Chennai and the Institute of Health
Systems in Hyderabad (India).
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2002. Indoor Air Pollution, July 2002 : Energy and Health for the Poor. Energy Sector Management Assistance
Programme (ESMAP);no. 7 (July 2002). © Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19899 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”