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Indoor Air Pollution Affects Billions, But There's No Easy Solution

Thinking in terms of polar ice caps and the eventual loss of Miami, it's easy to forget that the most immediate way that human beings are threatening their own environmental health happens in our own homes.

The World Health Organization estimates that 4.3 million die each year from being exposed to household air pollution, which comes from sources like cooking with solid fuels over an open flame or using a simple stove. As, by definition, the source is domestic, it affects women and children disproportionally.

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Health Impacts of Household Air Pollution

Long-term exposure to household air pollution is associated with the same health effects as exposure to outdoor PM2.5. These include an increased risk of ischemic heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower-respiratory infections (such as pneumonia), stroke, type 2 diabetes, and adverse birth outcomes. Household air pollution is also associated with the development of cataracts.

Household air pollution and its effects on health

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Resources

Our World in Data

Indoor air pollution is one of the world’s largest environmental problems – particularly for the poorest in the world who often do not have access to clean fuels for cooking.

WHO

Around 2.4 billion people worldwide (around a third of the global population) cook using open fires or inefficient stoves fuelled by kerosene, biomass (wood, animal dung and crop waste) and coal, which generates harmful household air pollution.