biomass smoke

Biomass smoke is the smoke produced by burning organic fuels — wood, crop residues, charcoal and animal dung — typically for cooking and heating over open fires or simple stoves. For billions of people without clean energy, this smoke fills the home daily, making it one of the world's largest and most overlooked respiratory hazards.

Incomplete combustion of these fuels releases a dense mixture of fine particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and toxic and carcinogenic compounds into poorly ventilated indoor spaces. The cooks — most often women, with infants nearby — inhale concentrations far above outdoor pollution limits for hours each day, year after year, depositing fine particles deep in the airways.

Chronic exposure is a major, often dominant, cause of COPD in non-smokers, especially women in low- and middle-income countries, and it is also linked to chronic bronchitis, recurrent respiratory infections in children, and lung cancer. Because the cause is identifiable and the fix is achievable, the most effective response is clean cooking — improved stoves, chimneys, ventilation, and a shift to cleaner fuels such as gas or electricity.