Speech by Hilary Benn at Smoke in the Kitchen reception, House of Commons, 23rd February 2005
Smoke in the Kitchen - Health impacts of Indoor Air Pollution in developing countries
Speech by Hilary Benn at reception hosted by Fabian Hamilton MP with ITDGPractical Action
Members' Dining Room, House of Commons, 23rd February 2005, 4.30 - 6pm
Ladies & gentlemen, good afternoon. I am very pleased to be here and was impressed by the clarity and passion of the previous speakers on an important issue.
A little over a year ago, on a visit to a village in Ethiopia, I visited a house where food is cooked on a basic stove using wood. The smoke, the darkness was almost overpowering. The walls were black. It left a powerful impression on me, of the realities of cooking indoors, without clean fuel.
In developing countries, poor people face many health hazards. The effects of indoor air pollution have perhaps received less attention than some other threats to their health, such as AIDS, malaria and water borne diseases. Smoke from household cooking stoves is a much less visible problem than, for example, air pollution by traffic on the streets of large cities. Yet in many countries indoor smoke poses greater health risks to a larger number of people.
The root cause is the use of low-grade fuel such as wood, crop residues and animal dung for daily household cooking and heating. A third of the world's population, about 2 billion people, use these fuels because they have no access to anything better or cannot afford cleaner fuels or the equipment to use it. They face other dangers too, such as the risk of burns from open fires and hours of daily drudgery collecting fuel. These particularly affect women and children who spend more time in the home.
DFID is the second largest contributor to the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP). Three years ago, we reached agreement with the Bank that household fuel and health be taken up as a key theme. As a result, the programme has worked in five developing countries, looking at the health impacts of indoor air pollution, improved cooking stoves and access to cleaner fuels.
One example is work carried out in India, where biomass fuel is used by 75% of households and indoor air pollution is the third highest risk to human health. This is higher than from tobacco and only slightly less than from unsafe water and bad hygiene. In rural areas people are often dependent on locally collected, poor quality fuels. The effects are devastating; an extraordinary 400,000 deaths a year. A higher number of children and adults suffer from poor health, with chronic chest, lung and eye diseases. The ESMAP study measured pollution levels, identified those groups most at risk and worked with the Indian Government to find ways of reducing peoples' exposure.
The overall figures look appalling. Compare the annual death toll to the recent tsunami tragedy; it's 5 times as much. This is a silent killer, repeated year after year. Because it does not occur in one place at one time, it is liable to be largely unnoticed. Effective solutions are not easily found.
In India, national and state governments have tried many elaborate schemes and initiatives to reduce peoples' exposure to smoke. These include trying to persuade people to use cleaner fuels or better stoves, or to keep their children away from fires and smoke filled rooms. Success has been mixed. Many households are still not sufficiently aware of the risks to change deeply embedded routines.
The nature of the problem is different in different countries and can be complex. In China, coal is widely used for heating and many households use it for cooking because wood is scarce. Open fires for heating in winter cause as much indoor air pollution as cooking. DFID is providing £500,000 towards a World Bank managed research programme in four provinces in China, being carried out with the help of the Chinese Ministry of Public Health and local research institutions. They are working with local communities to design and test new stove and ventilation technologies.
Coal fires produces a different and perhaps more dangerous cocktail of poisons than from wood. Many of these are invisible, odourless gases, often affecting sleeping areas as well as kitchens. In China many houses are arranged so people cook and sleep in the same room. Action to reduce the dangers of smoke and fumes may need to include the redesign of houses and the layout of rooms, as well as changes to heating and ventilation equipment. One preliminary conclusion from the China study is that knowledge alone of the health hazards in not sufficient to change behaviour. People need affordable choices of fuel and heating equipment.
The collection of good, reliable data and information is essential to a proper understanding of the problem. Effective policies and actions cannot be carried out without this foundation. For that reason we have been pleased to fund ITDGPractical Action's work on household energy and smoke, through two separate projects over the past 3 years. These have helped build much of the experience and evidence that enabled ITDGPractical Action to mount a campaign of education and information sharing, including publication last year of their excellent "Killer in the Kitchen" booklet.
Good understanding precedes effective action. The India study learnt that many households see little value in buying improved stoves that emit less smoke or in trying to ventilate their rooms. Where families have little money, they will not spend it on clean cooking fuel or improved designs of stoves, even when these are available. Often in rural areas wood fuel and animal dung can be used at no financial cost, although much time and effort may be spent in collecting it.
The issues are much more complicated than they might appear at first. They vary from country to country and between rural and urban locations. Knowledge and information about the risks and options must be made widely available. For this reason, we joined the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air, which aims to promote the global use of safe household cooking and heating. We will ensure the current DFID funded programmes are widely disseminated through the partnership, which is gaining a global reputation for sound information and good practice.
The World Bank's annual Energy Week in Washington next month includes a special session this year on indoor air pollution. There is a rising interest in the subject in the development community.
Ultimately the long-term solution is better access to affordable clean fuels and the equipment to use them. Where commercial fuels such as kerosene and bottled gas are available, indoor smoke is much reduced. Many countries are working to increase the availability of such fuels, especially in urban areas where distribution and sales are more easily arranged. Some countries are looking at subsidy arrangements to make clean fuel available to the poor. These need careful design if the poorest people are to benefit the most. Organisations like the World Bank and UN agencies can help make best practice and good ideas better known in developing countries. We can and do encourage this.
For many millions of rural households in Asia and Africa, reliance on so-called traditional biomass fuel for cooking is likely to continue for many years. Here more effort is needed to improve biomass stoves to reduce harmful smoke and also to save fuel. In addition, low cost measures, such as installing smoke hoods and improving ventilation, can greatly reduce the dangers. These all need action within communities, perhaps through the development of local markets for improved stoves and better fuel.
The starting point is clear information properly communicated to those affected and to those who can help them. Raising awareness of the dangers, and the steps, sometimes quite simple measures to avoiding them, is of crucial importance. We welcome the work by ITDGPractical Action are pleased to have been able to help them take this forward. Thank you very much for inviting me this evening. It has been most interesting and stimulating.
