Thursday, December 3, 2015
LPG continues to save lives and could save many more if it were made available to more people, asserts Forbes magazine. The publication in November quotes the World Health Organization’s Global Burden of Disease project that smoke from solid cooking fuel in poorer countries is the fourth most important risk factor impacting global health—just below smoking and just above alcohol consumption.
Forbes also points to a peer-reviewed article by the International Forum for Respiratory Research’s journal Inhalation Toxicology, which underscores that clean fuel stoves when fully adopted can dramatically reduce household air pollution and eliminate between 600,000 and 1.8 million premature deaths annually. And according to the World Bank, LPG is the most viable fuel option for the 15% of the world population that lacks electricity.
The World LP Gas Association (WLPGA) notes that the survival of three billion people, or nearly half of the world’s population (41%), depends on cooking with polluting fuels such as wood, dung, crop waste, coal, and charcoal. Because primarily poor rural women and their children are exposed to high levels of household air pollution, many die early deaths because they cannot access clean-burning LPG. WLPGA adds that in 2012 4.3 million premature deaths are attributed to exposure of this kind of pollution, equivalent to one person dying every eight minutes. Thirteen percent, or more than 500,000, were children under the age of 5.
Further, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), traditional biomass use as energy is leading to forest degradation, deforestation, a decline in biodiversity, soil degradation, and indoor air pollution. Satellite photographs of the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti illustrate the profound environmental benefits of making LPG available to those previously dependent on solid biomass fuels. The Dominican Republic began a program to make LPG available to all consumers in the 1990s, after which the forested area of the nation increased to 28.5% of the total land area compared to less than 3% in neighboring Haiti.
Forbes also points to a peer-reviewed article by the International Forum for Respiratory Research’s journal Inhalation Toxicology, which underscores that clean fuel stoves when fully adopted can dramatically reduce household air pollution and eliminate between 600,000 and 1.8 million premature deaths annually. And according to the World Bank, LPG is the most viable fuel option for the 15% of the world population that lacks electricity.
The World LP Gas Association (WLPGA) notes that the survival of three billion people, or nearly half of the world’s population (41%), depends on cooking with polluting fuels such as wood, dung, crop waste, coal, and charcoal. Because primarily poor rural women and their children are exposed to high levels of household air pollution, many die early deaths because they cannot access clean-burning LPG. WLPGA adds that in 2012 4.3 million premature deaths are attributed to exposure of this kind of pollution, equivalent to one person dying every eight minutes. Thirteen percent, or more than 500,000, were children under the age of 5.
Further, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), traditional biomass use as energy is leading to forest degradation, deforestation, a decline in biodiversity, soil degradation, and indoor air pollution. Satellite photographs of the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti illustrate the profound environmental benefits of making LPG available to those previously dependent on solid biomass fuels. The Dominican Republic began a program to make LPG available to all consumers in the 1990s, after which the forested area of the nation increased to 28.5% of the total land area compared to less than 3% in neighboring Haiti.
