Lancet says Putting Out 150 Million Stoves in India Over 10 years Will Save 2 Million Lives

If India were to put out 150 million improved biomass stoves each year for a decade, by 2020, the total number of averted premature deaths from acute lower respiratory infections will have reached about 240 000 children aged younger than 5 years, and more than 1·8 million premature adult deaths from ischaemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will have been averted, so says a Lancet paper, one of a series of six.

The paper is a part of a Health and Climate Change series titled "Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: household energy" and is co-authored by Paul Wilkinson, Kirk R Smith, Michael Davies, Heather Adair, Ben G Armstrong, Mark Barrett, Nigel Bruce, Andy Haines, Ian Hamilton, Tadj Oreszczyn, Ian Ridley, Cathryn Tonne and Zaid Chalabi.

The paper states: "For India, we specified a 10-year programme to introduce 150 million low-emissions household cook-stoves. This scenario was chosen because of the major public health burden that is associated with indoor air pollution from inefficient burning of biomass fuels in India and in many other low-income countries. It is also consistent with proposals that are being considered in India. The cost would be less than $50 every 5 years, perhaps paid partly through government subsidy and partly by the households because of fuel cost savings and time savings in harvesting of fuel.
The scenario used here draws lessons from the previous Indian national stove programme, the National Programme for Improved Chullhas,13 which, like the major national programme in China,14 was initiated in the early 1980s and focused mainly on increasing fuel efficiency to assist with rural welfare and, to a lesser extent, protect forests. Secondary emphasis was on reduction of smoke exposure through use of chimneys, and there was no consideration of outdoor pollution or climate. However, there have been major changes in our understanding about the value of and technology for emissions reductions and in world conditions that have modified the landscape for improved biomass stove programmes."

"The changes in health related to traditional fuel use patterns are much better established than they were previously, with hundreds of reports documenting the associated health outcomes. An estimated 400 000 pre-mature deaths per year in India are caused by biomass-fuel use in households.9 The international price of liquified petroleum gas, which is the major alternative clean household fuel, will probably continue to increase faster than will rural incomes, making the transition to modern fuels difficult and, if subsidised by government,increasingly expensive for national budgets. This situation adds to the attraction of deployment of advanced biomass stoves that provide high performance, use local renewable resources, and relieve the government of the cost of fuel subsidies. Climate change is a major threat and household fuel combustion is an important contributor, especially to black carbon, with high greenhouse effects per unit energy delivered compared with many other human uses of energy, depending on the relative weighting of the climate-active pollutants emitted."


The paper argues that if 15 million stoves are given out each year, at the end of the decade, 87% of Indian households would have clean combustion, either through graduating on their own to clean fuels or receiving advanced biomass stoves as part of the intervention.

By 2020, the total number of averted premature deaths from acute lower respiratory infections will have reached about 240 000 children aged younger than 5 years, and more than 1·8 million premature adult deaths from ischaemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will have been averted.
The paper claims that overall, the national burden of disease in 2020 from these three major diseases would be about a sixth lower than it would have been without the stove programme—which is equivalent to elimination of nearly half the entire cancer burden in India in 2020.

Government of Karnataka endorses Shell Foundation Campaign on Indoor Air Pollution

Shell Foundation awareness campaign launched in 111 Villages in Shimoga district

• Combined action with District Administration underway
• Inter-ministerial committee mooted to plan for Indoor Air Pollution Free State
• Toxic emissions and smoke from cooking claims 400,000 lives in India every year
• In developing countries this makes Indoor Air Pollution the most lethal killer after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe water and sanitation. 59% of these deaths are women.

Shell Foundation has undertaken a comprehensive program of engagement in 111 villages in Shimoga and is partnering with the district and state administration to drive awareness on the third largest killer in the country, Indoor Air Pollution (IAP).

Shell Foundation has received support from the Chief Minister’s office on its proposal to appoint an inter-ministerial committee with participation of IAP experts, stove manufacturers, MFIs, NGOs and others to develop a blueprint for State action. The State Government has positively viewed Shell Foundation’s proposal to adopt a mission of turning Districts with high firewood usage into “IAP Free Districts”, starting with Shimoga as a model District.

The campaign currently in operation in the Shimoga district in Karnataka has received the support of relevant officials of the State and District administration namely Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj; Minister of Social Welfare; Deputy Commissioner, Shimoga District and CEO Zilla Parishad, Shimoga District. All the concerned departments are now working together with the Shell Foundation team to find ways to reach the message of reducing smoke in the kitchen across the district and eventually the state.

The campaign in Shimoga district is an initiative by Shell Foundation to focus on promoting the internationally-recognised, most effective and sustainable method for tackling IAP, namely ‘improved stoves’, which significantly reduce emissions and fuel use. At present, the program is taking the message to 111 villages in Shimoga district through a combination of on-ground static and interactive activities. The high intensity campaign is being conducted over a 90-day time period between October and January 2009.

The campaign is also being reached to the people through active support from the District Administration including the health and education infrastructure, village level health workers and demonstration of campaign for Gram Panchayats.

The current initiative follows a pilot campaign on IAP conducted by Shell Foundation in 2008 in the districts of Raichur, Koppal, Udupi and Mysore, which indicated that although small changes like ‘keeping the kitchen windows open’, ‘installing a chimney or ventilator’, ‘keeping children
away from smoke‘ or ‘use of dry firewood’ can make a big difference in reducing IAP, the final focus needs to be on motivating people to change behaviour, with a focus on improved stoves.

At a press conference on November 19, 2009 in Shimoga, Simon Bishop, Policy and Communications Manager for the Shell Foundation said that, "We are very pleased that the Government of Karnataka has endorsed the campaign on creating awareness on Indoor Air Pollution. Through this initiative in Shimoga we hope the activities we conduct will be a showcase for a campaign that we would eventually like to expand across southern India. Our basic concern is that women should not be dying as a result of cooking meals for their families. If we can convince families to adopt improved cook stoves we will begin to prevent this from happening."

One person around the world dies every 20 seconds from the cumulative effects of IAP, resulting in approximately 1.5 million deaths per year, thus making IAP the fourth biggest killer in the world’s poorest countries, after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe water and sanitation. (Source: World Health Organization).



Shell Foundation has also developed the concept of ‘standardization of stoves’ to be able to directly connect the campaign with the improved stoves. The mark called ‘Symbol of trust’ (see top of release for symbol) will appear on the packaging and marketing materials of all improved stove manufacturers i.e. those that have passed rigorous tests on minimum emissions and fuel reduction standards as laid down by international bodies. At the local level, this mark will double-up as a ‘standards mark’ to indicate an improved stove that will reduce smoke levels by as much as 55%, while using at least 40% less fuel.
111 villages, with populations larger than 2000 people, will be covered in this campaign in the Shimoga district across its seven taluks namely Bhadravathi, Sagar, Sorab, Shimoga, Theerthahalli, Shikaripur and Hosanagara.
The campaign running through a stretch of 90 days includes an outdoor campaign that communicates the message through posters and wall paintings. The Village to Village campaign involves engaging local villagers through neighbourhood gatherings hosting a stream of mobile van campaigns, flip chart stories, street plays, interactive games and contests to give people a sense of involvement.
The campaign is being taken to the doorstep using the concept of Sustained Activist Householder who is an active local village lady visiting various households and informing the villagers about the problems of IAP and its solution – use of improved stoves standardised with the ‘mark of trust’ through flipchart stories and distribution of leaflets. Smoke-less Stove demos being conducted at weekly markets will introduce villagers to the benefits and effective use of stoves by providing them with a first-hand experience of using the stove.
At present, the campaign by Shell Foundation will highlight to the villagers the presence of independent improved stove manufacturers like Envirofit and Selco who have launched a range of clean burning biomass cookstoves in the country designed by teams of globally recognized scientists and engineers.
The Shell Foundation sees this awareness campaign as one of the most exciting and important developments in its Breathing Space program, which aims to achieve a significant long term reduction in IAP by designing so-called improved stoves that are more emission and fuel efficient - and by developing a sustainable way to get them in to people’s homes.

Shell Foundation Launches Awareness Campaign To Combat Indoor Air Pollution In Shimoga District

Shell Foundation today ( 10 Oct 2009) announced the launch of a campaign to actively promote measures that reduce Indoor Air Pollution thereby saving and improving lives and reducing CO2 emissions. In an effort to expand reach of campaign, Shell Foundation requested support of District Administration, Zilla Parishad and respective departments of the State Government.

All the concerned departments are now working together with the Shell Foundation team to find ways to reach the message of reducing smoke in the kitchen across the entire district.

The program is taking the message to 111 villages in Shimoga district through a combination of on-ground static and interactive activities like display of wall posters and wall paintings, mobile van campaigns and neighbourhood gatherings featuring flipchart stories, interactive games, street plays, stove demonstrations and a sustained activist householder (SAH) program. The high intensity campaign will be conducted over 90-day time period between October and December 2009.

The campaign is being reached to the people through active support from District Administration including the health and education infrastructure, village level health workers and demonstration of campaign for Gram Panchayats.

The campaign in Shimoga district is an initiative by Shell Foundation to focus on promoting the internationally-recognised, most effective and sustainable method for tackling IAP, namely ‘improved stoves’ that significantly reduce emissions and fuel use.

At a press conference on November 3, 2009 in Shimoga, Anuradha Bhavnani, Country Head for the Shell Foundation said that, "We are very pleased to be launching this new initiative in Shimoga and hope the activities we conduct will be a showcase for a campaign that we would eventually like to expand across southern India. Our basic concern is that women should not be dying as a result of cooking meals for their families. If we can convince families to adopt improved cook stoves we will begin to prevent this from happening."

Extending support towards the campaign, Mr. Hemachandra, Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchyat, Shimoga said that, “The issue of Indoor Air Pollution is quite prominent in the rural areas of Shimoga. Although, we have been constantly taking measures to reduce its impact, some of the rural population is yet unaware of its harmful effects. By creating awareness among the people, this village-to-village campaign by Shell Foundation will help strengthen efforts to deal with the issue of Indoor Air Pollution.”


Globally, reliance on solid fuels is one of the 10 most important threats to public health. One person around the world dies every 20 seconds from the cumulative effects of IAP, resulting in approximately 1.5 million deaths per year, thus making IAP the world’s fourth biggest killer after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe water and sanitation. (Source: World Health Organization 2002).
Indoor Air Pollution in India results from burning biomass (like wood, crop waste and animal dung) during cooking in the home. The toxic emissions and smoke from this cooking claims as many as 400,000 lives in India every year, most of whom are women and children due to their increased exposure in the home,

Shell Foundation has also developed the concept of ‘standardization of stoves’ to be able to directly connect the campaign with the improved stoves. The mark called ‘Symbol of trust’ will appear on the packaging and marketing materials of all improved stove manufacturers i.e. those that have passed rigorous tests on minimum emissions and fuel reduction standards as laid down by international bodies. At the local level, this mark will double-up as a ‘standards mark’ to indicate an improved stove that will reduce smoke levels by as much as 55%, while using 40% less fuel.

111 villages, with populations larger than 2000 people, will be covered in this campaign in the Shimoga district across its seven taluks namely Bhadravathi, Sagar, Sorab, Shimoga, Theerthahalli, Shikaripur and Hosanagara.

The campaign running through a stretch of 90 days includes an outdoor campaign that communicates the message through posters and wall paintings. The Village to Village campaign involves engaging local villagers through neighbourhood gatherings hosting a stream of mobile van campaigns, flip chart stories, street plays, interactive games and contests to give people a sense of involvement.

The campaign is being taken to the doorstep using the concept of Sustained Activist Householder who is an active local village lady visiting various households and informing the villagers about the problems of IAP and its solution – use of improved stoves standardised with the ‘mark of trust’ through flipchart stories and distribution of leaflets. Smokeless-Stove demos being conducted at weekly markets will introduce villagers to the benefits and effective use of stoves by providing them with a first-hand experience of using the stove.
At present, the campaign by Shell Foundation will highlight to the villagers the presence of independent improved stove manufacturers like Envirofit and Selco who have launched a range of clean burning biomass cookstoves in the country designed by teams of globally recognized scientists and engineers.
The Shell Foundation sees this awareness campaign as one of the most exciting and important developments in its fight against IAP.

The Black Carbon Connection: How real the challenge?

One of the major, albeit contentious, connections has been between black carbon and climate change with an equal weightage to the belief that black carbon does, or not, have a precipitous impact. Where some have seen hope in the ability to tackle black carbon better and faster, other scientists are sceptical that it may just take our eyes of what really needs to be done on climate change, namely bring down CO2 emissions.

There has been much discussion in the Indian press on a discussion paper put out by the Ministry of Environment that argued that global warming cannot be simply assessed by adding up all emissions and tracking glacier meltdowns.

The TIME Magazine puts out a widely read piece which squarely lines up Black Carbon as the number 2 contributor to climate change. "The world could think that we just cut CO2 and the problem is solved and we all go home, but it's not," says Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climatologist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and an expert on black carbon says in TIME. "That's my nightmare."

"Black carbon in the air actually absorbs sunlight as it comes from space, directly heating up the atmosphere. "The soot particles are like the parts of a blanket, and it's getting thicker," says Ramanathan. "The smoke absorbs sunlight and heats the blanket directly."

All of this has particular importance for developing Asian countries, especially India, where a mix of development means that biomass-burning and diesel combustion remains prominent. Black carbon is already having an impact on the ice atop the Himalayas, the massive glaciers that feed the major rivers of Asia when they melt each spring. Thanks to global warming, these glaciers are receding, threatening the long-term water supplies for the region. Ramanathan, Wilcox and an Indian glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain are working to figure out the impact of black carbon on glacial loss. Beyond warming the atmosphere, black carbon can also speed the melting of glaciers by literally turning them black — soot on snow makes the ice heat up faster. "When black carbon falls on the snow, it darkens it," says Ramanathan. "If the snow is white, it reflects 80% of the sunshine, but with black carbon it absorbs the sunlight."

The good news is that while taking CO2 out of our energy cycle has proven very difficult — especially in poorer developing nations — black-carbon emissions should be easier to curb. Reducing deforestation will help — the burning of tropical rain forests is a big contributor to the black-carbon load.

On the other hand, the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests paper says that glaciers in the Himalayas, over a period of the last 100 years, behave in contrasting ways. As an example, Sonapani glacier has retreated by about 500m during the last one hundred years. On the other hand, Kangriz glacier has practically not retreated even an inch in the same period. Siachen glacier is believed to have shown an advance of about 700m between 1862 and 1909, followed by an equally rapid retreat
of around 400m between 1929 and 1958, and hardly any retreat during the last 50 years. Gangotri glacier, which had hitherto been showing a rather rapid retreat, along its glacier front, at an average of around 20m per year till up to 2000 AD, has since slowed down considerably, and between September 2007 and June 2009 is practically at a standstill5. The same is true of the Bhagirathkharak and Zemu glaciers.

The auhtors argue that it is premature to make a statement that glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating abnormally because of the global warming. A glacier is affected by a range of physical features and a complex interplay of climatic factors. It is therefore unlikely that the snout movement of any glacier can be claimed to be a result of periodic climate variation until many centuries of observations become available. While glacier movements are primarily due to climate and snowfall, snout movements appear to be peculiar to each particular glacier.

Smoke: The Killer in the Kitchen

Of the four greatest risks of death and disease in the world’s poorest countries - being underweight; unsafe sex; unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene; and smoke from solid fuel.

Indoor air pollution (IAP) remains a large global health threat. One half of the world population, and up to 95% in poor countries, continues to rely on solid fuels, including biomass fuels (wood, dung, agricultural residues) and coal, to meet their energy needs. Cooking and heating with solid fuels on open fires or on traditional stoves generates high levels of health-damaging pollutants, such as particulates and carbon monoxide.

As women are primarily responsible for cooking, and as children often spend time with their mothers while they are engaged in cooking activities, women and young children are disproportionately affected. For example, the World Health Report (2002) estimates that acute respiratory infection (ARI) is one of the leading causes of child mortality in the world, accounting for up to 20% of fatalities among children under five, almost all of them in developing countries (IAP is thought to cause about one-third of ARI cases). This makes solid fuels the second most important environmental cause of disease after contaminated waterborne diseases (Bruce et al, 2006) and the fourth most important cause of overall excess mortality in developing countries after malnutrition, unsafe sex, and waterborne diseases (Bruce et al, 2006).

The relationship between air pollution and health came into focus from the studies that look at the impacts of ambient air pollution levels in the developed world. The studies indicates that these ambient air pollution levels affect human health, especially the health of young children and infants.

In addition to impacts on mortality, IAP may have long lasting effects on general health and well-being: early exposure to IAP during childhood may stifle lung development, suggesting that the cost of this pollution may continue later in life. In fact, a growing literature indicates that environmental insults at early ages can have long lasting influences on human health and productivity.

More than a third of humanity, 2.4 billion people, burn biomass (wood, crop residues, charcoal and dung) for cooking and heating. When coal is included a total of 3 billion people - half the world’s population - cook with solid fuel.

Around two-thirds of women with lung cancer in China and India are non-smokers.

The smoke from burning these fuels turns kitchens in the world’s poorest countries into death traps. Indoor air pollution from the burning of solid fuels kills over 1.5 million people, predominately women and children, each year. This is more than three people per minute. It is a death toll almost as great as that caused by unsafe water and sanitation, and greater than that caused by malaria. Smoke in the home is one of the world’s leading child killers, claiming nearly one million children’s lives each year.

Globally, reliance on solid fuels is one of the 10 most important threats to public health. Indoor Air Pollution in India results from burning biomass (like wood, crop waste and animal dung) during cooking in the home. The toxic emissions and smoke from this cooking claims as many as 500,000 lives in India every year, most of whom are women and children due to their increased exposure in the home.



One person around the world dies every 20 seconds from the cumulative effects of IAP, resulting in approximately 1.5 million deaths per year. India accounts for 80% of the 600,000 premature deaths that occur in south-east Asia annually due to exposure to IAP. The World Health Organisation estimates that pollution levels in rural Indian kitchens are 30 times higher than recommended levels and six times higher than air pollution levels found in New Delhi.

A survey assessed respiratory function using spirometery tests. The study reveals that CO levels and the reported health symptoms were reduced among women who received planchas. After about 16 months, a little over half (52.3 percent) of women in the treatment group stated that their health had improved, compared with a quarter (23.5 percent) of the control group. Women in the treatment group had reductions of sore eyes, of headaches, and of sore throats as compared to the control. Children in the treatment group experienced reductions in crying and of sore eyes.

Women and children hit hardest

Indoor air pollution is not an indiscriminate killer. It is the poor who rely on the lower grades of fuel and have least access to cleaner technologies. Specifically, indoor air pollution affects women and small children far more than any other sector of society. Women typically spend three to seven hours per day by the fire, exposed to smoke, often with young children nearby.
Over half of all people cooking on biomass live in India and China. This is a chronic problem for people living in rural areas of developing countries, but not exclusively - there is a growing problem in the cities as well.

A problem set to get worse

On current trends an extra 200 million people worldwide will rely on biomass for their cooking and heating needs by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. In parts of Central Asia where gas and electricity used to be available people are reverting back to using biomass as their main fuel source. In Tajikistan since 1991 the incidence of acute respiratory infection, the world’s greatest child killer, has risen by 35% largely as a result of burning wood indoors.

The effects of smoke on health

In the cities of the industrialized world air pollution has long been recognized as a major health hazard. A great deal of time and effort is put into measures that will reduce exposure to air pollution. Yet in poor people’s homes throughout the developing world levels of exposure to pollutants are often 100 times greater than recommended maximums.
The use of poorly ventilated, inefficient stoves ‘can have the same adverse health impacts as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day’.
- United Nations Development Programme.

Illnesses caused by indoor air pollution include acute lower respiratory infection. A child is two to three times more likely to contract acute lower respiratory infection if exposed to indoor air pollution. Women who cook on biomass are up to four times more likely to suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such as chronic bronchitis. Lung cancer in women in China has been directly linked to use of coal burning stoves. In addition there is evidence to link indoor air pollution to asthma, tuberculosis, low birth weight and infant mortality and cataracts.

Reducing lethal levels of smoke

Billions of people would lead a healthier life if their exposure to lethal levels of smoke were reduced. Public awareness of the health risks of smoke is a crucial first step. The most effective way to reduce smoke in the home is to switch to a cleaner fuel, such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene or biogas.

However, the vast majority of people at risk are too poor to change to a cleaner fuel, or have no access to modern fuels. In these homes, the answer will be to reduce exposure, for example by using well designed stoves, or smoke hoods which can reduce indoor air pollution by up to 80%.
Though simple, low-cost solutions are available, a technical fix alone is not the answer. Cooking is a deeply cultural and domestic task and communities themselves, particularly the women, must be directly involved in developing solutions that suit their circumstances.