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. 2014 Dec;122(12):1314-20.
doi: 10.1289/ehp.1206340. Epub 2014 Sep 5.

Household cooking with solid fuels contributes to ambient PM2.5 air pollution and the burden of disease

Zoë A Chafe  1 , Michael Brauer, Zbigniew Klimont, Rita Van Dingenen, Sumi Mehta, Shilpa Rao, Keywan Riahi, Frank Dentener, Kirk R Smith
Affiliations

Household cooking with solid fuels contributes to ambient PM2.5 air pollution and the burden of disease

Zoë A Chafe et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2014 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Approximately 2.8 billion people cook with solid fuels. Research has focused on the health impacts of indoor exposure to fine particulate pollution. Here, for the 2010 Global Burden of Disease project (GBD 2010), we evaluated the impact of household cooking with solid fuels on regional population-weighted ambient PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm) pollution (APM2.5).

Objectives: We estimated the proportion and concentrations of APM2.5 attributable to household cooking with solid fuels (PM2.5-cook) for the years 1990, 2005, and 2010 in 170 countries, and associated ill health.

Methods: We used an energy supply-driven emissions model (GAINS; Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies) and source-receptor model (TM5-FASST) to estimate the proportion of APM2.5 produced by households and the proportion of household PM2.5 emissions from cooking with solid fuels. We estimated health effects using GBD 2010 data on ill health from APM2.5 exposure.

Results: In 2010, household cooking with solid fuels accounted for 12% of APM2.5 globally, varying from 0% of APM2.5 in five higher-income regions to 37% (2.8 μg/m3 of 6.9 μg/m3 total) in southern sub-Saharan Africa. PM2.5-cook constituted > 10% of APM2.5 in seven regions housing 4.4 billion people. South Asia showed the highest regional concentration of APM2.5 from household cooking (8.6 μg/m3). On the basis of GBD 2010, we estimate that exposure to APM2.5 from cooking with solid fuels caused the loss of 370,000 lives and 9.9 million disability-adjusted life years globally in 2010.

Conclusions: PM2.5 emissions from household cooking constitute an important portion of APM2.5 concentrations in many places, including India and China. Efforts to improve ambient air quality will be hindered if household cooking conditions are not addressed.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of population-weighted ambient PM2.5 attributable to household cooking with solid fuels, 1990 (A) and 2010 (B).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Population-exposure weighted concentration of ambient PM2.5 attributable to household cooking with solid fuels, 1990 (A) and 2010 (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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