Blog #8

Dr. Kurt Hoffman took a trip to Tanzania in the 1970s and realized that there was an issue with the way women cooked for their families.  In developing countries women and children cook by using traditional hearth fires inside their huts.  He was shocked when he saw all the smoke that was inside the huts.  He was even more surprised when he returned 30 years later representing the Shell Foundation.  He decided then and there that this was a problem that needed to be addressed.  The Shell Foundation has joined with the Envirofit International to create the first model of a clean burning wood stove.  Their main focus is to issue the new product to India, Brazil, Kenya and Uganda.  Dr. Hoffman has focused on the issue of indoor pollution in the past because he participated in the Breathing Space program in 2002 through the Shell Foundation.  Eighty percent of rural families throughout developing countries cook using solid fuels such as wood, dung, coal, and crop residues. Although there is no specific census for this subject this is still the main way women cook in developing countries.  The reason this is hazardous for their health is because it causes risk for the environment which goes along with other issues such as malnutrition, lack of poor sanitation and clean water.  Although these issues primarily affect the poor residents in developing countries, it also includes the wealthy.  A lot of the wealthy people choose to cook on open fires or traditional biomass stoves because they may live in an area that doesn't have modern fuels or electricity.  Approximately 1.6 million people die every year of health issues resulting from indoor toxic air.  It affects mostly women because in developing countries women and children are the individuals who cook and spend countless hours surrounded by this toxic air.  One million of the 1.6 million are children who die from pneumonia while more than half a million women die too soon due to chronic obstructive pulmonary issues such as bronchitis and emphysema.  Researchers have found that indoor pollution also causes a higher risk occurrence of tuberculosis, cataracts, partial blindness, low birth weight, and high blood pressure.  This was a result of a five year study the doctors conducted in Guatemala on them cooking on improved stoves versus open fires.  This is a global issue because it is affecting women and children in large numbers throughout the developing world.  It is a part of other issues that people experience especially in poor areas of these countries.  Cooking on open fires causes a lot of health risks and even untimely deaths and that is big problem.  This is one of the main health/disease issues that could possibly affect children even without including death as the most serious effect. 

Antiqua Thurston   3/29/13 6:39

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/science/22stov.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&