New data show more premature deaths due to household air pollution attributed to basic cookstoves

Writing in the Department of State's "DipNote" blog, Kris Balderston, special representative for the Secretary of State's Global Partnerships Initiative, and Jacob Moss, U.S. coordinator for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, highlight the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 published last week in the Lancet, "which estimates that household air pollution attributed to cooking over open fires or basic cookstoves causes the premature deaths of approximately four million people annually -- many of them women and young children." They note "[t]he new estimate of the premature deaths due to household air pollution represents a significant increase from previous estimates of two million annual premature deaths," and write, "This new study makes more urgent than ever the absolute necessity of our efforts to lead the globe towards universal adoption of clean and efficient cooking solutions" (12/14).