The World Health Organisation estimates that exposure to indoor air pollution is responsible for 1.6million deaths worldwide each year, with a 2004 report suggesting that 90 percent of rural households worldwide use coal and biomass fuel (such as wood, charcoal and dung) for cooking and heating. ClimateCare’s projects are directly addressing this issue.
Chinese research, published in the American journal of Epidemiology, has found that the chance of malformation of the brain and spine known as neural tube defects are 60 percent higher for children whose mothers inhaled coal smoke than for the children of unexposed mothers.
Some 70 percent of Chinese households currently rely on coal or biomass fuels, with the research collecting information on coal use and other exposures for parents of 610 infants with neural tube defects and 837 healthy infants. Overall, nearly 90 percent of children with neural tube defects lived in a house that used coal for cooking, compared to just over 80 percent of those without the defects. Infants were also more likely to have neural tube defects the higher their mothers' exposure to coal smoke; often a good indicator of a link between an apparent cause and an effect.
ClimateCare has designed and implemented projects in Cambodia, Ghana and Uganda, which increase fuel efficiency and reduce levels of indoor air pollution for rural communities. With plans for expansion to other sub-Saharan African nations, advocating the use of efficient cook stoves or substituting for the use of a clean renewable fuel could prevent future health problems for millions of people.