Envirofit, Shell Battle 'Silent Killer In The Kitchen'
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 10. 2.07
Photo credit: allspaw
It's been a red-letter week for Envirofit International. Besides retrofitting two-strokes in the Philippines, the environmental non-profit will also be collaborating with the U.K.-based Shell Foundation to reduce the number of global deaths caused by indoor air pollution—or more precisely, the smoke the billows forth from traditional fires and stoves used in homes in developing countries—by distributing cleaner-burning cook stoves.
More than 3 billion people cook in their homes burning biomass fuels such as wood, dung, and crop waste, notes Envirofit in a press release, producing "lethal flames" from these cooking fires. It cites a World Health Organization statistic that indoor air pollution causes the deaths of 1.5 million people across the globe per year, or one person every 20 seconds.
Armed with $25 million in financing, Envirofit will be managing the Shell Foundation's Breathing Space program, which was launched in 2002 to achieve significant reductions in indoor air pollution. Colorado State University's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory has also been roped in to help Envirofit design, develop, market, and distribute 10 million clean-burning cook stoves engineered to emit significantly less toxic emissions. Bonus: The stoves will also use less fuel. ::CSRWire.com
See also: ::Mexico to Fire Up ONIL Stoves in 2008, ::BP Designs Biofuel-LPG Flex Fuel Cook Stove and Distribution Scheme for Rural India, and ::Waste-Powered, Award-Winning Stove Cuts Smoke in China's Countryside
