Environmentalists seek to set research agenda on indoor air pollution

Nearly half the world’s people use open fires and traditional biomass cooking stoves that expose them to indoor air pollution and cause an estimated 1.9 million premature deaths a year. Women and children are particularly affected.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves seeks to reduce this exposure through a switch to cleaner, more efficient alternatives. It is promoting the ambitious goal of converting 100 million homes by the year 2020.

A three day meeting of health advocates and biomedical researchers has proved to be the catalyst for setting a research agenda on indoor air pollution in developing countries. The US National Institutes of Health organised the conference, held near Washington, DC, on 9-11 May.

Themes reported by the conference’s working groups included …