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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | Xinhua | A Tanzanian medical specialist said on Tuesday that at least 33,024 people, mostly women, die annually in the east African nation from breathing smoke caused by solid fuels for cooking, including charcoal and firewood.
Pauline Chale, a pulmonologist from the Muhimbili National Hospital, Tanzania’s leading public medical facility, said using charcoal or firewood was among the main causes of respiratory illnesses.
She made the remarks in a panel discussion, entitled “State of Cooking in Tanzania”, at the start of a two-day Clean Cooking Conference in the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam moderated by Tanzanian Minister of Energy January Makamba.
The conference aims to research and suggest strategies for achieving affordable, clean, and reliable cooking solutions.
“Women and children are the most affected groups as they spend many hours a day in the kitchen exposed to high levels of pollutants,” said Chale.
According to statistics made available at the conference, biomass accounts for close to 90 percent of the primary energy consumption in households in Tanzania, where 63.5 percent of the households use firewood as the main source of cooking energy, and 26.2 percent use charcoal.
The statistics by the Ministry of Energy also show that 5.1 percent of households use liquefied petroleum gas, 3 percent use electricity and 2.2 percent use alternative energy sources.
Remidius Ruhinduka, a lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, warned that the continued use of solid fuels for cooking is detrimental to both human health and the environment.
“If we don’t act now to stop using charcoal or firewood for cooking, we will experience devastating consequences,” said Ruhinduka.
