Household air pollution and related health impacts

Overview

More than a quarter of the global population still cook meals over open fires and/or on simple stoves fuelled by firewood, agricultural waste, dried dung, charcoal, and coal. This practice results in the emission of harmful and dangerously high levels of household air pollution. Exposure to this household air pollution has been estimated to cause around 3.2 million deaths annually in 2019; these emissions also worsen ambient air quality, alter the global climate, have gendered livelihood impacts, and degrade the local environment. Lower-emission and exposure-reducing alternatives – like gas and electricity – are widely used among middle- and upper-income households globally but have not yet been made available or affordable to poorer households at scale. It is also important to tackle household air pollution in refugee and migrant communities, where people are often forced to burn harmful materials like trash and plastics for their basic needs. This exacerbates health risks for already vulnerable groups, especially given the growing conflicts and climate change.

Household air pollution and related health impacts highlights the impact of household energy use for cooking, heating and lighting and the implications on health. The technical brief summarizes current status of household energy use, barriers, drivers and enablers of clean household energy transitions as well as the way forward for countries, the research community and the health sector.

This document is part of the WHO Air Quality, Energy, and Health Science and Policy Summaries (SPS). These summaries provide concise overviews of current knowledge and evidence on air quality, energy access, climate change, and health. They aim to support decision-makers by presenting key insights from scientific research.

The SPS are developed through a multistakeholder consultation process that includes experts from WHO Advisory Groups – i.e., the Scientific Advisory Group on Air Pollution and Health (SAG), and the Global Air Pollution and Health – Technical Advisory Group (GAPH-TAG) – as well as specialists from WHO Collaborating Centres, UN agencies as well as other experts from academia and civil society.

All Science and Policy Summaries can be accessed here