In a recent article published by alertnet on trust.org, a recent study shows that over two million people a year are killed by the smoke produced by indoor stove fires in developing countries each year. It is thought that the smoke produced from these stove fires kills more people than malaria, which kills nearly a million people each year. With an annual death toll around two million because of these smoky stoves, their effect on the population is currently at detrimental levels, and also requires some further investigation. The death tolls that are seen are not in the populations of developed countries. The smoky stoves are killing only those from the most rural areas of developing countries. These stoves are such an issue in most of these areas of developing countries because of the lack of ventilation seen in the shacks built in these areas. There are often no chimneys in these huts, thus there is no way for the smoke to escape. This is also an issue, which mainly affects women and children, not men. In the social structure of these developing countries, men do not spend all their time in the hut, and are typically not cooking the meals. This lessens their exposure to the harmful smoke produced by these stoves. The women however spend far more of their time in the hut, and typically are the ones cooking the meals. The children are also more often with their mothers as opposed to their fathers so they have almost as high of an exposure rate as the women do. This is an issue that stems back not just to the smoke itself, but the conditions many people are living in, in these developing countries. Before the issue can be fixed, the broader picture must be looked at. ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/smoky-stoves-kill-2-mln-people-a-year-say-scientists/
The lack of education would lead to the ignorance about smoke and carbon monoxide poisoning. Without chimneys, air really doesn't flow through the living space as well as it should. This is such a preventable issue that it's difficult to imagine such a simple fix could help over two million people survive another year. We like to believe that it requires a huge amount of effort and complicated technology to fix the world's problems, but in actuality, sometimes the simplest fixes are the most effective. While we cannot fix the environments these people live in quickly, we can help them understand the necessity of having a chimney or having as much ventilation and air flow as possible. Even if the smoke doesn't kill, it will cause long term issues, like lung problems.
ReplyDeleteRecent international health organizations mainly focus on infectious diseases. We cannot criticize what they are doing right now because caring infectious diseases are important, but sometimes we ignore the fact that many things such as smoke produced stove fires kills more people than malaria. The important thing to notice from these data is that deaths from smoky stove occurs mostly in developing countries, which telling us that these deaths are preventable problem with more caring about the issue. It is important to develop living environment of people before we try to save people from infectious diseases.
ReplyDeleteThe best solution to this problem – as with most things it seems – would be to pour money into this particularly sorry health concern. Investing in clean fuels and clean stove technologies would be ideal but of course likely too expensive for the majority of the 3 billion people who use traditional stoves and open fires for cooking, but it is a good thing efforts are still being made (United Nations Foundation’s Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves). In the meantime, some simple steps such as cooking outdoors, using chimneys and keeping children away from the stoves might mitigate the effect of the current stove usage.
ReplyDeleteThis problem seems like an easy fix: install ventilation of some sort, like a chimney. It would probably not be very difficult to retroactively add such a thing into a house, but the problem is cost. It would be difficult for families to afford such a device, so the funding would have to be provided from somewhere else. Like Anthony said, putting money into the problem seems like the quickest fix. Of course, educating people of the dangers of smoke and inside fires is also important, so that they don't ignore the lack of ventilation, and possibly training locals to install equipment would make life easier for both those providing the chimneys and those receiving them.
ReplyDelete