Indoor air pollution has been called "the killer in the kitchen." The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1 million children and 600,000 women die each year from the effects of this pollution, and millions more are chronically sickened.

Why is indoor air pollution such a problem? Worldwide, more than 3 billion people still rely on biomass fuels (wood, dung, and agricultural wastes) for cooking and energy. Cooking with wood over an open fire fills kitchens with smoke; smoke that contains dangerous levels of particulates and carbon monoxide. This heavy exposure has been likened to smoking five packs of cigarettes a day.

Breathing the toxic smoke from open cooking fires can lead to acute respiratory illness, pneumonia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Women and children are most seriously affected, as they are the family members who spend the most time in the kitchen. Indoor air pollution is the leading cause of death world-wide among children under five, and is responsible for 2.7% of the total global burden of disease*. Open cooking fires also contribute to eye irritation and disease, and create an on-going danger of serious burns to children who may be playing near them.

The World Bank and other international development institutions have identified the reduction of indoor air pollution as a critical objective for the coming decade. TWP is tackling this problem with our improved stove programs in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, where more than 20,000 stoves have been built in the last nine years. Each stove benefits an average of five people in the family. Independent emissions research on the Justa and Eco-stove models shows that these stoves reduce particulates and carbon monoxide by 80%, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60%, thanks to greater wood-burning efficiency and chimneys which vent the deadly smoke from the house. The addition of a technologically simple and inexpensive improved cookstove changes lives immediately and dramatically.

* World Health Organization