Where is the problem worst?
It is in the world’s poorest regions that smoke is a major threat. Over half of all the people cooking on wood, dung or crop waste live in China and India. However the highest proportion of people cooking on these fuels live in sub-Saharan Africa, rising to over 90 per cent in many countries. On current trends, the number of people relying on wood, dung and crop waste for cooking and heating is set to rise by 200 million, to 2.6 billion, by 2030. The majority of the rise will be in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The actual percentage of the world’s population relying on wood, dung and crop waste is projected to decline, but the rate of decline will not keep up with population growth. In parts of Central Asia where gas and electricity used to be available people are reverting to using wood as their main fuel source. In Tajikistan since 1991 the incidence of acute respiratory infection, the world’s greatest child killer, has risen by 35 per cent largely as a result of burning wood in
