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Join the GBD 2021 Household Air Pollution team, an international effort to quantify global air pollution healthy Burden of Household Air Pollution, 1990 to 2021 I look forward to familiar work: analyzing how indoor smoke harms the body. Instead, what initially looked like household data revealed a deeper picture of global inequality.
The urgency of this inequality has never been greater. In December 2025, the British government released an updated environmental plan. Tighter restrictions on wood-burning stoves – The move is aimed at reducing PM2.5 pollution, fine particles small enough to enter the lungs and bloodstream and linked to serious health risks.
Working with data feels personal. Each night, I scanned the estimates from country to country, imagining families preparing meals on smoky stoves, inhaling toxins they couldn’t see and probably weren’t aware were damaging their health. For many communities, the switch to cleaner fuels isn’t about convenience. It’s about survival.
Our study examined changes in household air pollution exposure in 204 countries between 1990 and 2021. Although the use of solid fuels such as wood, coal and dung has declined, household air pollution exposure remains widespread and the health consequences are serious.
Home air pollution rarely makes headlines, but it kills millions of people every year. Every time a meal is cooked over smoke-filled flames, families inhale toxins that shorten lifespans, stunt child development and deepen structural inequalities.
Research shows childhood exposure is associated with impaired cognitive development, respiratory vulnerability and long-term health disadvantages. These effects are often hidden and emerge slowly over years, making them easy to overlook and harder to address.
Household air pollution is a major risk factor for COPD, Strokelower respiratory tract infection, lung cancer and ischemic heart diseasealso called coronary heart disease, occurs when the heart is starved of oxygen due to narrowed or blocked arteries. These health risks manifest themselves unevenly around the world, and global patterns in our data highlight this unevenness.
Risk exposure in wealthy regions continues to decline. Global data tracking access to clean and modern energy shows that households in high-income countries now rely much less on polluting stoves than in the past. However, much of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia remains heavily reliant on polluting fuels. Clean options such as LPG, electricity, ethanol, improved biomass stoves and biogas remain financially out of reach for many households.
But our research can inform clean energy investments, help shape health policy and improve public understanding of risks.
About the author
Vikram Niranjan is Assistant Professor of Public Health at the University of Limerick School of Medicine.
This article is reproduced from dialogue Licensed under Creative Commons. read Original article.
Governments and development partners can accelerate access to clean fuels by improving the infrastructure that delivers them, such as fuel storage, transportation and local retail networks. They can also strengthen electrical systems so that homes have a constant supply of electricity to support electric cooking.
Subsidies can help lower the cost of cleaner fuels and stoves so households are not forced to choose cheaper, more polluting options. Investment in locally appropriate technology is important because stoves work best when they are suitable for the food people prepare, the size of the pots they use and the rhythm of their daily lives.
Health systems can improve diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases related to household air pollution, especially where exposure levels remain high. More robust data systems are also important because many countries still lack reliable monitoring of pollution exposure. Without accurate data, it is difficult to identify communities most at risk, measure progress, or plan effective interventions.
Community engagement is at the heart of lasting progress. Adoption rates increase when stoves fit local cooking styles, meet household preferences and are introduced through trusted local groups rather than being imposed from outside. People are more likely to try and continue using a new stove when it comes from a source they are familiar with and fits their daily routine.
Although household air pollution may be considered a personal or family problem, its effects extend far beyond the home. Clean cooking is not just a sustainability or climate theme. This is a health equity issue. Clean cooking involves more than just changing stoves or fuel types. This is about protecting health and expanding opportunities so that every child has the chance to grow up in an environment that does not silently harm them.
Reducing household smoke means fewer chronic diseases, fewer premature deaths and a stronger foundation for global health. If progress is slow, the places that can least afford it will continue to bear the heaviest burden.