Exposure to contaminated indoor air has been identified as a significant cause of health problems affecting the poor in developing countries, especially women and younger children. According to recent estimates in India, indoor exposures to particulates appears to be responsible for more than 7% of the national burden of disease. This is substantially greater than the percentage attributed to urban air pollution. A similar magnitude of health damages is observed in China.
It is the relationship between meager income and the reliance on biomass energy that makes the urban and rural poor carry a disproportionately large share of heavy household indoor pollution worldwide. An estimated 2 billion people burn firewood, dung, and crop residues for heating and cooking using simple stoves and open fires, often without chimneys, flues or appropriate ventilation devices.
The magnitude of the problem is demonstrated in India, where 75% of all households (a total population of 700 million) depend on traditional biofuels. Biomass smoke in homes is estimated to cause one-half million premature deaths each year. The majority of these deaths are of women and young children who have been exposed to high concentrations of toxic pollutants for many hours each day.
There are genter-specific and its gender-specific impacts among the urban and rural poor . India, Nepal: chronic bronchitis; China: lung cancer, passive smoking and coal heating.
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