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| Smoke from wood and animal dung cause nearly 25,000 infant deaths
every year in Pakistan
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In Pakistan, more than 80% 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 from these fuels causes serious
health hazards, especially for children.
Aga Khan University (AKU) and World Health Organization (WHO) Geneva,
held an international seminar on September 29, 2005 titled, Indoor
Air Pollution from Household Fuels, which highlighted the harmful
effects on children's health and discussed various interventions.
The seminar attracted broad participation from individuals and organizations
with interest in child health, environmental sciences, and alternative
energy sources.
In the opening lecture, Dr. Nigel Bruce from the University of Liverpool
(UK) discussed the disease burden in poor mothers and children exposed
to smoke from biomass fuels. Such exposure leads to acute respiratory
infections, low birth-weight babies, and other chronic illnesses,
he said.
Ms. Kehkeshan Beenish from the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) spoke about the role of energy for sustainable development
in the context of meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals. The
poor are the ones in greatest need of access to clean affordable energy,
and also the most vulnerable to environmental degradation that results
from deforestation and pollution, she said.
Dr. Anita Zaidi, chief conference organizer and Associate Professor
of Pediatrics at AKU, presented the results of a study conducted in
collaboration with colleagues from Harvard University and University
of California at Berkley. 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
alone. Furthermore, 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.
As families depend on young children for these time-consuming activities,
the practice reinforces high fertility behaviour, in turn leading
to high population growth. Dr Martin Weber (WHO), Dr Rehana Siddiqui
(AKU) and Dr Zafar Fatmi (AKU) also spoke on the occasion.
Many NGOs working in rural development and environmental problems
were prominent in the seminar, including World Wildlife Fund, Escorts
Foundation, Aga Khan Planning and Building Services, Rural Development
Project Haripur, Caritas, and others. The NGOs shared their experiences
of working in rural areas of Pakistan and increasing access to better
stoves, alternate fuels, and improved housing with better ventilation.
Speakers also discussed low-cost solutions to the problems of indoor
air pollution exposure.
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