Time to end indoor air pollution to control respiratory diseases

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to restriction of movement, including lockdown of some counties in Kenya, with most people forced to stay at home to avoid infection.

There is a need, therefore, to be more cautious due to existing practice of using biomass fuels to cook, light and warm houses, especially in rural areas, considering that they release many harmful pollutants.

Inhaling these pollutants results in excess respiratory morbidity and mortality, especially in women and children, who are mainly in the kitchen.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says every year, more than 1.6 million children in the developing countries die from acute respiratory infections, being the consequences of exposure to biomass fuel smoke.

It is believed that people who are exposed to more air pollution and who smoke are likely to fare worse if infected with a respiratory disease.

A study on Sars, a viral disease that is closely related to Covid-19, found that people who breathed dirty air were about twice likely to get a respiratory infection.

Use of improved cookstoves significantly reduces indoor air pollution. Governments and civil society organisations should initiate related projects and also play a role to increase awareness of the adverse health effects of indoor biomass smoke and encourage use of open kitchens and improved ventilation in case of traditional kitchens.

There is also a need to holistically address the barriers to adoption of clean energy technologies in the rural areas.

The technical and vocational education training (TVET) institutes should design affordable improved cookstoves that can reduce indoor pollution.

As we marked the 50th Earth Day — the annual celebration of the environmental movement founded in 1970 — on Wednesday, cities worldwide were deserted.

With lockdowns to combat Covid-19, flights were cancelled. In Kenya, entertainment places, markets, churches, schools and factories have been closed and people told to stay at home.

Surprisingly, this happens to have delivered the environmental silver lining of the dark cloud of the coronavirus pandemic: a sudden drop in carbon emissions.

But this is not the first time an epidemic has left its mark on the atmospheric carbon dioxide level.

The Black Death in Europe in the 14th Century and the epidemics of diseases such as smallpox, brought to South America with the arrival of the Spanish onquistadors in the 16th Century, also did.

The WHO estimates that seven million people die every year as a result of air pollution. The figure might reduce this year owing to the prevailing cleaner air.

However, the fact remains that Covid-19 has brought more bad than good. Let us all act to stop the spread of the deadly virus.