ILOILO City – Cooking using charcoal and firewood is a major cause of indoor air pollution that in turn results to respiratory illnesses. How serious is the problem in this city, most especially among households? Iloilo City has been chosen as a pilot area of a research in this subject.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around three billion of the world’s poorest people still rely on solid fuels (wood, animal dung, charcoal, crop wastes, and coal) burned in inefficient stoves for cooking and heating, and some 1.2 billion light their homes with simple kerosene lamps.
These household energy practices emit large quantities of health-damaging particulate matter and climate warming pollutants (e.g. black carbon) into the household environment, increasing the risk of respiratory illnesses, including childhood pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular diseases, and lung cancers.
The research in Iloilo City – and another one in Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija province – will be funded by the Asian Development Bank, according to City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) head Engineer Noel Hechanova.
The University of the Philippines’ Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology will conduct the research covering 200 households in this city.
“The researchers are going to bring equipment to measure the levels of pollutants,” said Hechanova.
According to WHO, in poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can be 100 times higher than acceptable levels for fine particles. Exposure is particularly high among women and young children who spend the most time near the domestic hearth.
“The smaller the particles are, the more dangerous to the lungs,” said Hechanova.
Last year, the CENRO started an information campaign on the adverse effects to health of indoor air pollution due to inefficient household cooking technologies.
Among others, Hechanova stressed the importance of good ventilation in households.
Some 3.8 million people a year die prematurely from illness attributable to the household air pollution caused by the inefficient use of solid fuels and kerosene for cooking, according to WHO. Among these 3.8 million deaths:
* 27 percent are due to pneumonia
* 18 percent from stroke
* 27 percent from ischemic heart disease
* 20 percent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
* 8 percent from lung cancer
More generally, small particulate matter and other pollutants in indoor smoke inflame the airways and lungs, impairing immune response and reducing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, according to WHO./PN
Eh ano ang himuon ga e bla kada balay sang electric stove tapos kamo bayad sang bill kong di gani LPG tapos kamo bayad kada bulang sang tanke ya. Amo man lang na ang paliwansan san mga wala sang electric stove of lpg stove anhon mo ina kay wala ikasarang mag bakal. Ang gwa sina di na sila mag luto.