Poverty condemns around half of the world's population to use solid fuels for cooking and heating their homes. The smoke from burning these fuels turns kitchens into death traps.

Indoor smoke leads to the deaths of over 1.5 million men, women and children each year. That is a life lost every 20 seconds - a death toll greater than that caused by malaria.

Practical Action is working with poor communities in Kenya, Nepal and Bangladesh, and using simple technology to reduce the threat from indoor smoke and improve people's lives.

Practical Action has been campaigning for international action to fight the killer in the kitchen - smoke from cooking fires. Action is now beginning to be taken, with the launch of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a partnership between the US government and other nations along with charitable foundations.

Writer and broadcaster Adam Hart-Davis visited Kenya to see the problem for himself, and to raise awareness of one of the biggest killers in the developing world.