Although air pollution is commonly thought of as an urban problem related to automobiles and industrial emissions, the problem of IAP in the developing world far outweighs the problem of outdoor air pollution. IAP is thought to cause 1.6 million deaths yearly, a majority of which are due to LRIs in children under 5. High levels of respirable particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and other toxic pollutants are largely due to the use of biomass and coal for cooking and heating indoor spaces in rural and impoverished urban settings in low and middle-income countries. Options for reducing exposure include behavioral interventions, such as moving cooking outdoors, using improved stoves, and providing access to cleaner fuels.

The Indian National Program of Improved Cookstoves was established in 1983 with the goal of reducing smoke emissions in the cooking area in order to improve health conditions, reduce deforestation, and to reduce the workload of women. This was a national effort, with the Ministry of Non-Coventional Energy Sources planning and monitoring the effort, and local governments and NGOs responsible for implementation. 33 million clean-burning biomass stoves were distributed over almost 20 years, each subsidized by 50% to 90%. A parallel effort also distributed 500,000 “box solar cookers”, which could be used during daylight hours. However, a recent review of the project found that only 7% of traditional cookstoves remain in use.

What category of intervention was this?

Despite stoves having a proven impact in other community settings, why could this not be “scaled” up to a national level?