Did you know that Large number of Nigerian women and some from other part of African countries suffer ailments resulting from the use of firewood?
It was confirmed that Thousands of women dies yearly as a result of inhaling dangerous smoke while cooking with firewood” .
It is clear that large percentage of rural settlers most especially women are not really aware of the impact of climate change to their health,
In a survey by African climate reporters,most women residing in the rural areas are not really informed about climate change
The World Health Organization states that “Over 98,000 Nigerian women die annually from use of firewood. If a woman cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner, it is equivalent to smoking between three and 20 packets of cigarettes a day
“The death from this sector contributes to 10 per cent of global annual death and it is bigger than tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS and malaria combined, and it is only killing women.’’
Also World Health Organisation survey on the global burden of disease reveals that nearly 600,000 Africans die annually and millions more suffer from chronic illnesses caused by air pollution from inefficient and dangerous traditional cooking fuels and stoves.
“The smoke from these fires pumps a harmful fug of fine particles and carbon monoxide into homes. Lousy ventilation then prevents that smoke from escaping, sending fine particle levels soaring 100 times higher than the limits that the WHO considers acceptable.”
As a result of this,A climatologist, Dr Auwal Abdulssalam, has consequently urged the three levels of government in the country to provide safer energy for cooking to protect the lives of rural women using firewood.
Abdulsalam said this in Kaduna at the opening of a training workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management for Volunteers, organised by an NGO, that smoke-induced death from firewood has been on the rise in the country.
“Many African women are exposed to different types of diseases as a result of using various kinds of firewood for cooking without knowing the type of trees they are burning.
“The smoke of some of these trees is really very bad and harmful to human health.”
Abdulsalam also urged government to sanction indiscriminate felling of trees, saying the practice is posing serious threat to agriculture.
The climatologist also spoke on the effect of global warming to humans, animals and the environment due to unsustainable rise in the level of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour.
Meanwhile network of Climate and environemental reporters in African urged African union to find means of reducing the rate of women dying yearly as a result of inhaling dangerous smoke while cooking
The release of particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other harmful products of incomplete combustion from solid fuel cooking is strongly linked to acute lower respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, cataract and low birth weights.
Sufficient evidence also exist that asthma, tuberculosis, paediatric sleep disorders, depression, bacterial meningitis, depression, are closely associated with cooking with coal, firewood, dung and crop waste, including widespread minor ailments from smoke inhalation such as eye irritation and headaches.
African climate reporters suggest that there is the need for all Civil societies organization and stake holders in the region to start taking Campaign to rural areas with the sole aims of enlightening the public on the dangers of climate change.
