Disproportionate effects on children and women

Household practices regarding energy use varies greatly from one region to another world, and therefore the number of victims of air pollution inside homes. While over two-thirds of child deaths due to smoke in the houses due to acute lower respiratory tract are observed in the WHO regions of Africa and South-Eastern Asia, more 50% of COPD deaths attributable to air pollution inside homes occurs in the Western Pacific Region.
In most societies, it is women who are responsible for cooking and, as required by the local cuisine, they spend between three and seven hours per day in the kitchen preparing food. Thus, 59% of all deaths attributable to air pollution in homes are women. Young children are often carried on the backs of their mothers or installed near the warm hearth. Consequently, toddlers spend long hours breathing the smoke in the house during the first year of life, when their airways grow and where they are, therefore, particularly vulnerable to agents hazardous pollutants. Therefore 56% of all deaths from air pollution to indoor occur among children under five.