Why cooking causes 4m premature deaths a year

ASK MOST people about air pollution and they will think of jam-packed roads and coal-fired power plants. But toxic fumes often come from indoors. In much of the world families still cook using solid fuels (ie, wood or charcoal) instead of with cleaner methods (gas or electricity). The household smoke that they create leads to almost 4m premature deaths each year, making it the world’s third-biggest cause of early mortality for women and children, after heart disease and strokes.

Chopping down trees for firewood or charcoal also hurts the environment: the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that it causes deforestation of land the size of Ireland each year.