Deborah Havens

TL;DR: Evidence for the association between household air pollution and respiratory infections, respiratory tract cancers, and chronic lung diseases is reviewed, as well as study design issues and potential effective interventions to prevent these disease burdens.

TL;DR: It is found that an intervention comprising cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstoves reduced the risk of pneumonia in young children in rural Malawi and effective strategies to reduce the adverse health effects of household air pollution are needed.

TL;DR: In spite of improvements, lead exposure was still substantial and probably associated with continued home-based recycling, legacy contamination, and workplace take-home exposure pathways, and there is a need for effective strategies to manage lead exposure from battery recycling in craft villages.

TL;DR: The findings are encouraging from the perspective of acceptability, but without innovative financing mechanisms, general uptake and sustained use of the stove may not be possible in this setting and the question of whether the stoves should be marketed and championed as ‘health interventions’ is raised.

TL;DR: A systematic review of the literature found limited evidence for an association between household air pollution and risk of acute lower respiratory infection in adults and additional research, with carefully defined exposure and outcome measures, is required.