Biomass Smoke and Rural Health: Indian Women are at Risk

About half of the world's population, mostly in rural areas of Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, still rely on unprocessed biomass as their primary source of domestic energy. Nearly 2 billion kg of biomass such as wood, animal dung and agricultural wastes are burned everyday in developing countries, and it accounts for more than 80% of domestic energy in India. A survey conducted jointly by National Council of Applied Economic Research and World Bank in 1996 has reported that about 578 million tons of biomass is used annually in India as a source of domestic energy of which wood constitutes 52%, animal dung 21% and agricultural refuse 20%. The annual consumption of wood is 302.1 million tons, dung cake 120.6 million tons and crop residues 115 million tons. In general, rural domestic sector in India uses 1.2-2.1 kg of biomass/capita/day [1]. 4. Bruce N, Perez-Padilla R, Albalak R (2000) Indoor air pollution in developing