If you think that you are safe in your air-conditioned homes then your belief is likely to receive a jolt if the new findings are to be believed, which says that each year nearly 1.5 million people succumb to indoor air pollution. Use of solid fuel in the home has been sited as the prime reason, which is responsible for polluting indoor air. The use of such fuels has been linked to numerous ailments like pneumonia particularly in children, and chronic respiratory diseases like asthma. In most of the cases these diseases often turn fatal and life threatening.
These findings have been released in a survey that was done by World Health Organization. The survey also says these 1.5 million deaths accounts for nearly 5 per cent of total death in the 21 countries that are most affected by indoor air pollution. These countries are: Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda.
Susanne Weber-Mosdorf, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments said:
The prevention potential is enormous and solutions are available, and it is our international responsibility to promote the health and well-being of those affected, who are mostly women and children.
The most effective way to keep indoors air fresh and healthy would be to turn to cleaner and more efficient modern fuels like biogas and kerosene. The use of such fuel would eliminate the immediate risk to health up to a great extant.
A meeting is also underway in New York where energy and environment ministers are discussing whether to indoor air pollution on national policy agendas.
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Source: Raw Story