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More than half o f the developing world’s population, particularly rural poor
households, depend on solid fuels such as agricultural residue, green waste, wood
and wood derivatives, charcoal, coal, crop waste, and dung for their primary
cooking. This high level of dependence on traditional solid fuels and inefficient and
polluting cook stoves imposes huge health, environmental, economic, and social
costs on the people in these economies.
Biomass smoke contains an enormous number of substances, many o f which
damage or are injurious to human health. Most important are particulates, carbon
monoxide, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides, formaldehyde, and polycyclic organic
matter causing respiratory infections, nasopharyngeal and airways irritation,
wheezing, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, low birth
weight, an increase in prenatal deaths, cancers o f the lung, mouth, cataracts etc.
(Banerjee_et al., 2012).
Firewood collection, fuel processing (e.g., drying and cutting), cooking, and postmeal cleanup are traditionally female-gendered roles across the developing world.
As a result, women are supposed to bear a disproportionate burden o f the negative
health, economic and time poverty effects o f bio mass fuel. As per evidence
gathered from several countries, exposure of women cooks to significantly higher
particulate matter emissions is higher than men, up to four times men’s levels in
Kenya and up to double the level o f men in South Asia studies. (Huq, et al., 2004).
Recent research demonstrates evidence o f greater incidence o f respiratory illness
and eye disease including a higher component o f disadvantage towards women
regarding depression, blindness headaches, coughing, eye itching. According to
Fullerton, et al., (2008) women are also expected to have more incidences o f
headaches, anemia, and other symptoms of excessive carbon monoxide exposure
because the negative impacts o f carbon monoxide in women, especially pregnant
women, occur at significantly lower proportions than men
