Good Health and Well-Being

LPG use helps to support good health and well-being through the prevention of non-communicable diseases in adults and pneumonia in children.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution kills seven million people prematurely each year. More than half of these die from Household Air Pollution (HAP), a result of the large disease burden related primarily to the use of polluting fuels for cooking, heating and lighting. This is the greatest environmental health risk in the world today.

Around three billion people still rely on solid fuels and kerosene for cooking. Reducing smoke emissions from household energy activities decreases the burden of disease associated with HAP and improves well-being, especially for women and children who bear the brunt of poor energy access.

For several important health outcomes such as child pneumonia, lung and cardiovascular disease, exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) needs to be reducedto very low levels to achieve health benefits.

The majority of solid-fuel cooking interventions promoted over the years have not come close enough to these levels.

One of the targets under SDG 3 is to “end preventable deaths of newborns and children under five years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births” by
2030. Dr. Maria Neira, Director of the Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at WHO, has said that “the best vaccination against pneumonia is ensuring that kids don’t breathe dirty air at home.”