Firewood ‘kills 14,300 Kenyan women a year’
What you need to know:
- Globally, at least three billion people rely on solid fuels for cooking, causing serious environmental and health impacts that disproportionately affect women and children.
- “I see shadows during the day and in the evening. I am almost totally blind,” Ms Moraa who collects firewood from her farm said.
- Asked why she has never used an alternative source of fuel she said: “Kerosene is too expensive and I do not trust stoves. We have been told they are dangerous and may explode.”
The simple act of boiling a pot of water or making a meal in many homes, especially in the rural areas, using firewood carries a lethal health risk, a report released by the UN shows.
This follows shocking findings by health experts as well as the United Nations that the continued use of open fires to either cook or heat homes during cold weather exposes women to toxic gases that slowly killed them.
UN statistics indicate that in Kenya, at least 14,300 women die every year from inhaling the gases.
The country, the statistics indicate, is amongst the eight countries that contribute 65 per cent of the deaths globally, which currently stands at 4.3 million.
The other seven countries include Ghana that registers at least 13,400 deaths per year, Nigeria (70,000), Guatemala (5,200), Uganda (13,400), Bangladesh (78,000), China (1.04 million) and India (1.02 million).
SOLID FUELS
Globally, at least three billion people rely on solid fuels for cooking, causing serious environmental and health impacts that disproportionately affect women and children.
For instance, Ms Mary Moraa, 62, who lives at Itumbe in Kisii has never used any other fuel her entire life.
Even though she enjoys using firewood to cook, she said for the past five years, her eyes have started giving her problems.
“I cannot see when I finish cooking. In the morning, my vision becomes blurred up to around 11am when it clears up,” she said.
“I see shadows during the day and in the evening. I am almost totally blind,” Ms Moraa who collects firewood from her farm said.
“In the past, there were bushes all over and it was easy to collect firewood, but these days with land depleted, we cut down trees or prune the branches for firewood,” she said.
Ms Moraa said she spends about five hours preparing meals in her smoke-filled two roomed hut that has four tiny windows.
Asked why she has never used an alternative source of fuel she said: “Kerosene is too expensive and I do not trust stoves. We have been told they are dangerous and may explode.”
Dr Angwenyi Ongeri, a physician at Oasis Doctors Plaza in Kisii, said over exposure to firewood smoke causes chronic lung inflammation, a similar condition brought about by prolonged smoking of cigarettes.
