Biomass fuels: impact and assessment on health

Abstract

Biomass (Wood, charcoal, agricultural residues, dung, etc.) is widely used a source of energy in developing countries. Traditional biomass fuels such as wood, charcoal, crop residues and animal dung remain the most common sources of household energy in most of the developing world. Rough estimates indicate that worldwide one-third of the population or about 2 billion people depend on these sources of energy and nearly 90 per cent population belong to some of the least developed countries. Biomass energy in used primarily to cook food, mainly using tradi-tional or improved stoves (but also open fires). Improvements are needed, however, as evidence gathered over the past two decades shows that tradi-tional multifunctional wood or other bio-mass burning stoves are not very efficient and that they often emit considerable amounts of smoke, soot, particulates and many kinds of harmful gases, which are potentially hazardous products of incom-plete combustion (PICs). As a result, the cook usually a woman and small chil-dren in the home are exposed to high levels of indoor air pollution. The growing prosperity of environmental pollution brings a great threat to people of this planet. Environment, which comprises physical, biological as well as social factors, is a crucial determinant of human health. Women must be the ambassadresses of environment issues, as the environ-ment start from the home. Women and environment are inseparable. Each women can contribute significantly to protect her environment and it is a bounded duty too. Most women spend about 90 percent of their time indoors in their homes or other buildings. In many developing countries, gender ascribed roles entrenched within the social and cul-tural fabric mean that women and girls are often responsible for fuel collection and cooking. Women may spend as much as three to seven hours per day for cooking using biomass fuel, exposed to smoke, often with young children nearby.