Energy poverty and cooking in the context of "Kerosene"

Air pollution is the presence of substances in the air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be gases, like ozone or nitrogen oxides, or small particles like soot and dust. Both outdoor and indoor air can be polluted.

Outdoor air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels for electricity and transport, wildfires, some industrial processes, waste management, demolition and agriculture. Indoor air pollution is often from burning firewood or agricultural waste for cooking and heating. Other sources of air pollution include dust storms and volcanic eruptions. Many sources of local air pollution, especially burning fossil fuels, also release greenhouse gases that cause global warming. However, air pollution may limit warming locally.

Household Air Pollution (HAP) is a significant form of indoor air pollution (IAP) mostly relating to cooking and heating methods used in developing countries and even smaller islands in the Caribbean. Since much of the cooking is carried out with biomass fuel, in the form of wood, charcoal, dung, and crop residue, in indoor environments that lack proper ventilation, millions of people, primarily women and children face serious health risks. In total, about three billion people in developing countries are affected by this problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that cooking-related pollution causes 3.8 million annual deaths. The Global Burden of Disease study estimated the number of deaths in 2021 at 3.1 million. The problem is closely related to energy poverty and cooking.

Smoke from traditional household solid fuel combustion commonly contains a range of incomplete combustion products, including both fine and coarse particulate matter (e.g., PM_2.5, PM₁₀), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and a variety of organic air pollutants.