摘要：Exposure to indoor air pollution (IAP) from the burning of solid fuels for cooking, heating, and lighting accounts for a significant portion of the global burden of death and disease, and disproportionately affects women and children in developing regions. Clean cookstove campaigns recently received more attention and investment, but their successes might hinge on greater integration of the public health community with a variety of other disciplines. To help guide public health research in alleviating this important global environmental health burden, we synthesized previous research on IAP in developing countries, summarized successes and challenges of previous cookstove implementation programs, and provided key research and implementation needs from structured discussions at a recent symposium. Indoor air pollution (IAP) is responsible for many health, environmental, and social issues that disproportionately and adversely affect women and young children around the world. 1,2 Nearly half the world’s population burns solid fuels (e.g., coal, biomass, and animal dung) as their principal household fuel for cooking, heating, and lighting. 3 IAP in these households was estimated to be responsible for almost 2 million premature deaths in 2001, and represented approximately 3% of the global burden of disease. 4 In addition to direct effects on IAP and health, carbon dioxide and black carbon emissions from burning solid fuels are also important contributors to global climate change. 5 In particularly vulnerable regions, women and young girls are subject to attacks by militia and rebels during extended periods of foraging for fuel to use in inefficient cookstoves. 6,7 Widespread improvements in cookstove and other combustion technologies could ensure greater safety for, and provide more time to, hundreds of millions of women to engage in other social and economic activities that improve their lives and the lives of their families and communities. However, there are combined technical and social complexities associated with effective cookstove implementation in developing countries, and there remains a significant need for intervention studies and interdisciplinary research to reduce the effects of cookstoves and other devices as sources of IAP and agents of global climate change. To help guide the integration of public health and other disciplines in this field, we first provided a synthesis of previous research on IAP in developing countries and summarized successes and challenges from previous cookstove implementation programs. Subsequently, we provided recommendations for research and implementation needs from structured discussions among participants in a recent symposium on indoor air quality in developing countries at the international Indoor Air conference in Austin, Texas, on June 6–7, 2011.
