May 02, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, May 1: About 81 per cent people in Pakistan rely on solid fuels – one of the 10 key threats to public health – and the subsequent exposure to indoor pollution causes over 70,000 deaths every year.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that the incidence of disease attributable to solid fuels use in Pakistan was 4.6 per cent.

In the first-ever country-by-country estimates, the UN health agency said that solid fuels use caused over 50,000 deaths from acute lower respiratory infections and nearly 19,000 deaths annually from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Pakistan.

Indoor air pollution from solid fuels used for cooking and heating are to blame for almost 5 per cent of deaths and disease, affecting mostly women and children, in 21 of the most heavily impacted countries, including Pakistan, it said.

The annual disability-adjusted life year (DALY) attributable to solid fuel use in Pakistan has been calculated at 2,057,400. DALY is used to measure the burden of disease and it combines the years of life lost due to disability with the years of life lost due to death.

Pakistan is a predominantly rural society where biomass meets about 86 per cent of total domestic energy requirements. Ninety per cent of the rural and 50 per cent of the urban population depend on biomass fuels.

Women and young children are the most exposed to dangerous levels of pollutants and are thus the principal victims.

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