CLEAN COOK
People in middle income and low income countries still make use of open fires and simple stoves to cook their food. These methods of cooking can produce high level of dangerous cooking smoke which has been known to cause injury or death overtime especially to women and children who are often the primary cooks and fuel gathers for their families in the developing world. According to World Health Organization (WHO), household air pollution from cooking smoke kills four million people worldwide. In Africa, Nigeria experiences the highest number of household air pollution.
Series of chronic illnesses associated with breathing such as emphysema, bronchitis, lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases can all be acquired from the smoke exposure produced from this method of cooking. This unsuitable method of cooking also contributes to climate change through emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and aerosols such as black carbon invariably giving rise to about 4% annual greenhouse emission worldwide.
Clean cooking is the method of application of cleaner, more modern cook stoves and fuels to lead a healthy and productive life. This helps in reduction of exposure to harmful smoke and beneficial to the environment and climate change. This method of practice can be divided into three main categories-through the use of electric stove, by the use of a cook stove based clean fuels(biogas, methane, ethanol, solar) and by the use of cook stove designed to burn biomass input(wood, charcoal, other biomass).
The clean cooking stoves are always applicable anywhere that unsuitable and polluting cooking means are being used. It comes in different types and sizes depending on factors such as the availability of materials, the climate, and the method of supply in the region. The benefits of this method include changing lives by improving health, protecting the climate and environment, empowering women and helping consumers save their time and money.
