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Household air pollution from coal and biomass fuels in China: Measurements, health impacts, and interventions

Zhang, J. & Smith, K. (2007). Household air pollution from coal and biomass fuels in China: Measurements, health impacts, and interventions. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(6).

Though public health is discussed as a consequence to the use of coal and other unsustainable fuels, it isn’t always at the center of the sustainable energy debate. This article examines the argument supporting sustainable energy by discussing the most immediate impact the use of coal and biomass fuels have on health. The article estimates that more than 60% of China’s population is rural and most use biomass and coal to power their indoor stoves. China recognizes this issue and is working to eliminate coal in households but in rural areas biomass and coal are still the dominant source of indoor air pollution causing significant damage to public health. The World Health Organization reported that an approximately 420,00 premature deaths each year are caused by indoor air pollution, 40% more than the approximately 300,000 attributed to outdoor air pollution.

Income level and location within a village that also uses coal and biomass fuels are two of several factors that exacerbate the impact of this fuel use on public health in rural China. Lung cancer, respiratory illness, lung function reduction, immune system impairment, poisonous coal endemics, and CO poisoning are among the health effects attributed to indoor air pollution. The impacts of coal burning and other unsustainable fuels has reached a breaking point in China that has forced the government’s hand to mitigate some of these effects through polices to limit these dangerous fuels.

There have already been several failed attempts within China to modernize and improve the stoves used in rural China. The problems with those attempts stemmed from their inability to make significant impacts on the mass scale. The article concludes with several recommendations including adding a chimney or a modernized bioenergy program. Any strategies employed to reduce coal emissions and indoor air pollution are warned to be aware that only coordinated support from the government and the private sector will result in successful transition into an era free of this issue.

This article exposes yet another aspect of the harmful effects of coal burning, particularly in developing nations. Additionally, this article also inadvertently highlights the environmental and social justice issues surrounding the disproportionate burning of coal conducted by the rural and energy starved parts of China. The urban locations in China and urban-based citizens have been the first to escape, or will be, the indoor air pollution problem. The urban focus of the government regarding emissions reductions policies exposes the volatility and sustainability of China’s demand and use of coal as well as where their social and environmental policies are not focused, in the rural areas. The article states that there are approximately 100 counties that have been concerned “endemic” because of the coal deposits have toxic elements that are impacting the safety of drinking water for example. This is yet another indication of the severity of China’s problem with coal and unsustainable energies.



last updated march 2014