Smoke emitted from the biomass fuels causes serious chest and eye problems for children resulting in 25,000 infant deaths in Pakistan, and for mothers it brings acute respiratory infections, low birth-weight babies and other chronic illnesses that call for expensive treatments.
Speaking at the international seminar on "Indoor air pollution from household fuels", jointly organised by the Aga Khan University Hospital and the World Health Organisation at the AKU on Thursday, Dr Nigel Bruce from the University of Liverpool, UK, discussed the disease burden in poor mothers and children exposed to smoke from biomass fuels.
He said that such exposure leads to acute respiratory infections, low birth-weight babies and other chronic illnesses.
Bruce said that effective smoke management would be one answer but better would be to introduce alternatives to the users of biomass fuels.
In Pakistan more than 80 percent of households use traditional biomass fuels such as wood and animal dung. These fuels are commonly used for cooking in poor households but the smoke emitted causes serious health hazards, especially for children and in general for women.
Dr Anita Zaidi, chief conference organiser and associate professor at the AKU, presented results of a study conducted in collaboration with colleagues from Harvard University and University of California at Barkley.
She said that indoor air pollution from biomass fuels was a major risk factor for child health causing an estimated 25,000 infant deaths from pneumonia every year in Pakistan. Furthermore, she said, that there are serious consequences on female literacy as mostly female children are burdened with wood gathering and animal dung preparation activities and therefore are not sent to schools. She said that as families depend on young children for these time consuming activities, the practice reinforces high fertility behaviour. She said that this in turn leads to high population growth.
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