The Lancet, 5 April 2025

Global, regional, and national burden of household air pollution, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Household air pollution (HAP) from solid cooking fuels is a known source of health-relevant exposure for about 3 billion people worldwide.

People living in households using primarily solid fuels (coal or charcoal, wood, crop residues, and dung) for cooking are exposed to high levels of HAP from particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2·5 μm (PM2·5), a well-established hazard to human health. Burns are common in households using solid fuels, and fuel collection typically falls to women and girls, consuming tens of hours per week. UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3·9 aims to reduce morbidity and mortality from environmental pollution, and SDG 7·1 calls for universal access to cleaner fuels by 2030, but many countries still do not have the resources to achieve these goals.