Study on types of fuel consumption in traditional Chulhas and its impact on health in village Bande of district Banda

Biomass fuel refers to burned plant or animal material, wood, charcoal, dung and crop residues. In developing countries more than half of domestic energy as much as 95% in low income countries use biomass fuel for cooking and heating purposes. Indoor air pollution is potentially a large health threat in rural regions and is also responsible for the deaths and illness of millions of young children. This paper reports the results of a survey of types of fuel consumption and health among the 150 households in village Bande of Banda district. Firewood, dung cake following by Coal, Kerosene, Agricultural waste, were found to be the major fuels consumed by the villagers. In comparison to the other fuels dry leaves, shreds of cloth, plastic, etc are also consumed as fuels but comparatively in a very less proportion. Wood of Acacia nilotica was found to be consumed the maximum followed by the wood of Zizyphus mauritiana. Wood of Ipomoea carnea which produce highly toxic pollutants was also found to be used in good proportion in village Bande. The wood of Mangifera indica was found to be consumed the minimum in this village. Approximately 27.58 % people were reported to be lung infected and 24.13% were found to suffer from the eye problems among all the other diseased people. 6.89% people were having both the eye as well as lung related problems. As a result of the detrimental impact of biomass fuel consumption on health and mortality, many governmental, non–governmental organization and international organizations have started developing strategies aiming to reduce indoor air pollution. These strategies include subsidization of clean fuel technologies, promotion and subsidization of improved cook stoves, use of solar thermal cookers and solar water heaters. To reduce pollutants level from biomass fuel, behavioural changes like processing biomass fuel to make them cleaner and improving household design should also be adopted on personal aspects.