In the second of this 2-part series, we hear about the goals and challenges of efforts to improve cookstoves to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.

Globally, about three billion people use inefficient fires or basic stoves for their daily cooking, lighting, and heating. The smoke from these fires contributes to over 4 million avoidable deaths annually, with women and young children the most affected.

In this 2-part series, experts discuss the health, safety, environmental, and economic implications of solid fuels in low- and middle-income countries. We also consider the goals and challenges of efforts to improve cookstoves to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.

Part 2: Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan: Cookstove Challenges

Kalpana Balakrishnan, Ph.D., is a professor of biophysics in the Department of Environmental Health Engineering at Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai, India. She also serves as director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and The Center for Advanced Research on Environmental Health for the Indian Council of Medical Research, Government of India. She has been involved with research concerning air pollution and health in the ambient, household and occupational environments leading several regional efforts in South Asia. She has contributed to several national and international technical assessments concerned with air quality, including the World Health Organisation Air Quality Guidelines for ambient and household air pollution. She also serves as a Regional Editor for Environmental Health Perspectives, the official journal of the NIEHS and as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Public Health.

Other Episodes in the Same Series

• Cookstoves and Indoor Air Pollution (Part I)

For More Information

• WHO Fact Sheet: Household Air Pollution and Health