Further Information
Short-Term Volunteer Community Building Projects in Honduras

Below are some facts about air pollution which highlight the problems facing the indigenous populations in rural Honduras:

Air pollution

• More than one-third of humanity, 2.4 billion people worldwide, use solid fuels including wood, dung and coal for their energy needs.
• Solid fuels have been used for cooking since the beginning of time and when used properly, they can be an effective way of heating a home or cooking a meal. Unfortunately, due to economic, political and cultural factors, most families today use what is referred to as a three stone fire, which is three round stones surrounding a wood fire, over which a metal plate is placed for cooking. Coupled with poor ventilation in most homes, this is leading to high levels of indoor air pollution.
• Smoke in homes from these cook stoves is the fourth greatest risk factor for death and disease in the world’s poorest countries.
• Worldwide, 1.6 million annual deaths, predominantly women and children, are caused by indoor air pollution, including one million children’s lives each year (more than malaria or AIDS).
• Children under the age of 5 account for 56% of deaths from Indoor Air Pollution.
• The main killer caused by indoor air pollution is called acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI). Pneumonia, serious burns and eye infections are other health risks. Many women go blind in their forties due to smoke from the cooking fires.
• Women typically spend between three and seven hours per day by the fire, longer when fires are also used for heating the home. Children under the age of five are also particularly at risk, because they spend most of their time with their mothers; often very young ones are strapped to their mother’s body. The impact this length of exposure has on small children is exacerbated by a number of factors. Children’s airways are smaller, therefore more susceptible to inflammation. Their lungs are not fully developed until they are teenagers, so they breathe faster. Also, their immune systems are not fully developed – a process that may be further delayed by malnutrition. These facts mean that children absorb pollutants more readily than adults and also retain them in their system for longer.
• Another major problem from these cook stoves is depleting resources and the time necessary to collect the firewood.
• Up to 85% of the energy generated by a three-stone open fire is wasted, which is a real problem considering that poor families spend up to 20% of their income on solid fuels and/or spend one quarter of their time gathering wood.
• In most societies it is also the women’s responsibility to provide the biomass fuel. The time cost alone, in rural areas, can be extreme. Estimates range from two to twenty hours per week spent collecting fuel, and the distances covered over difficult terrain can be considerable. In Nepal, for example, women can walk over 20 km per journey in search of wood. This level of work not only reduces the amount of time women can spend on other activities, such as earning money or resting, but it contributes to a range of additional threats to health and wellbeing.
• Often, if the mother cannot collect the wood, it is the responsibility of one of the daughters in the family, thus taking away from time that could be spent at school.

Comparison of Indoor Air Pollution to Malaria (a more widely known global problem):

• 20% of the world’s population are at risk from malaria; almost 50% are at risk from indoor air pollution.
• Malaria kills about one million people per year; indoor air pollution kills over 1.6 million.
• Recently the UN General Assembly restated their aim to control malaria. While Indoor Air Pollution is starting to gain recognition there is not yet a worldwide campaign for healthy indoor air.