Video transcript: Dr Isabelle Uny and colleagues talk about their 'Fuel to Pot' study

2.3 billion people worldwide are using solid fuel, such as charcoal and wood, for their cooking needs and their heating needs in the world.

Out of those, it's estimated to be linked to 3.2 million deaths a year. 700,000 of those are in sub-Saharan Africa. And in the context in which we work, which is informal settlements or slums,

51% of the sub-Saharan population lives in those slums and on the whole uses solid fuel. For the two methods which we used, which was Photovoice and Walking Interviews.

They converge in terms of the findings when it comes to what source of fuel people use. So the charcoal was preferred also because it would cook several meals and also after cooking it would warm the water that would be used for washing the children. And paraffin was because you would go to a nearby shop and you could actually buy it.

That people are even being driven to use plastics as a source of fuel and that’s not just for lighting the fuel, but even from the start of cooking to the end of cooking itself to use plastics. You can imagine the types of fumes which they are being exposed to throughout the cooking process.

So we're talking really, really high level of exposure, to tiny, tiny particles in the air of soot that people are inhaling basically on a daily basis. And that leads to lots of lung problems, aggravated asthma, aggravated TB, lung cancers, cataracts and a bunch of other cancers.

People are being driven to use these sources, not that they want or rather that they like using those sources, it is all issues to do with household income, issues to do with the type of cooking stoves that they have, and as well as availability of those types of cleaner sources of fuel.

So what we do hope happens now is that we will take the research and do some form of intervention in Kenya and in Malawi, pilot test it out in both countries and see if there's any room for rolling it out, in terms of educating people around solid fuel use or any other small interventions around ventilation, changes you can make in the house, and other such solutions that may help people to better their health.

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