Everyone has heard, and t-shirts can be bought emblazoned with, the popular
saying ‘Home is where the heart is’. Lungs, too, it turns out. Hearts and
homes convey images of peace and security, protection and shelter. Lungs
and homes, as we learn from this month’s 2010: Year of the Lung feature
article, have a different association. Homes of poor people are where lungs
are likely to be injured from exposure to exceedingly high concentrations of
toxins in smoke from biomass fuels and coal used in cooking and heating.
Indoor air pollution, we are told, ‘accounts for a substantial proportion of
the global burden of disease in developing countries’. And that’s not all: according
to Doctors Perez-Padilla, Schilmann and Riojas-Rodriguez it is going
to get worse before it gets better. Clean fuels are expensive. Effi cient stoves
can alleviate some of the emissions, but both cultural and behavioral barriers
stand in the way of widespread acceptance. Much more needs to be done.
John F. Murray, Series Editor
e-mail: johnfmurr4@aol.com