Solid Fuel Use for Household Cooking: Country and Regional Estimates for 1980–2010
Open accessAbstract
Background: Exposure to household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels in simple stoves is a major health risk. Modeling reliable estimates of solid fuel use is needed for monitoring trends and informing policy. Objectives: In order to revise the disease burden attributed to household air pollution for the Global Burden of Disease 2010 project and for international reporting purposes, we estimated annual trends in the world population using solid fuels. Methods: We developed a multilevel model based on national survey data on primary cooking fuel. Results: The proportion of households relying mainly on solid fuels for cooking has decreased from 62% (95% CI: 58, 66%) to 41% (95% CI: 37, 44%) between 1980 and 2010. Yet because of population growth, the actual number of persons exposed has remained stable at around 2.8 billion during three decades. Solid fuel use is most prevalent in Africa and Southeast Asia where > 60% of households cook with solid fuels. In other regions, primary solid fuel use ranges from 46% in the Western Pacific, to 35% in the Eastern Mediterranean and < 20% in the Americas and Europe. Conclusion: Multilevel modeling is a suitable technique for deriving reliable solid-fuel use estimates. Worldwide, the proportion of households cooking mainly with solid fuels is decreasing. The absolute number of persons using solid fuels, however, has remained steady globally and is increasing in some regions. Surveys require enhancement to better capture the health implications of new technologies and multiple fuel use.
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Globally, 41% of households, over 2.8 billion people, rely on solid fuels (coal and biomass) for cooking and heating.
“Globally, 41% of households, over 2.8 billion people, rely on solid fuels (coal and biomass) for cooking and heating.”
From Household air pollution and the sustainable development goals (2016) · cites this paper as [1]
The Results and Conclusion report that 41% of households used solid fuels primarily for cooking in 2010, with roughly 2.8 billion people exposed—not a stated figure of over 2.8 billion. The Methods explicitly say the estimates do not directly include fuels used for space heating, so the claim's extension to heating is unsupported. (LLM, conf=0.91)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredBetween 1980 and 2010, the population exposed to household air pollution increased from 333 million to 646 million in sub-Saharan Africa and from 162 million to 190 million in the eastern Mediterranean.
“Between 1980 and 2010, the population exposed to household air pollution increased from 333 million to 646 million in sub-Saharan Africa and from 162 million to 190 million in the eastern Mediterranean.”
From Household air pollution and the sustainable development goals (2016) · cites this paper as [1]
The population mainly using solid fuel for cooking has remained unchanged over the last three decades at around 2.7 to 2.8 billion.
“The population mainly using solid fuel for cooking has remained unchanged over the last three decades at around 2.7 to 2.8 billion.1”
From Household air pollution and the sustainable development goals (2016) · cites this paper as [1]
In south-east Asia, the population exposed to household air pollution remained stable during 1980-2010 at around 1 billion people.
“In south-east Asia, the population exposed to household air pollution remained stable during the period at around 1 billion people.1”
From Household air pollution and the sustainable development goals (2016) · cites this paper as [1]
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- Authors
- Bonjour, S., Adair-Rohani, H., Wolf, J., Bruce, N. G., Mehta, S., Prüss-Ustün, A., Lahiff, M., Rehfuess, E. A., Mishra, V., & Smith, K. R.
- Affiliations
- World Health Organization (CH)
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Washington, DC, USA
- Department of Public Health and Environment, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- United Nations (US)
- Venue
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2013-05-03
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 784-790
- ISSN
- 0091-6765 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-9924
- PMC
- PMC3701999
- OpenAlex
- W2082879841
- Cited by
- 899
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 52 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 65 · 2022: 96 · 2021: 89 · 2020: 97 · 2019: 85 · 2018: 87 · 2017: 66 · 2016: 56 · 2015: 48 · 2014: 39 · 2013: 8
- FWCI
- 39.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor, 1701 d)
- Locations
- Environmental Health Perspectives (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- World Health Organization
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Energy and Environment Impacts
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Air Quality and Health Impacts
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Keywords
- solid fuel use, home cooking, household air pollution, cooking stoves, exposure trends, multilevel modeling, global burden of disease, disease burden estimation, regional variation, Africa, Southeast Asia, population growth
- MeSH terms
- Air Pollutants, Charcoal, Coal, Cooking, Environmental Exposure, Environmental Monitoring, Humans, Models, Theoretical, Seasons, Time Factors, Wood, Global Health, Air Pollution, Indoor
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