3rd May, 2017
Women in Need, an NGO, in Kaduna on Wednesday called for massive awareness campaign against cooking with firewood to stem cases of deaths arising from smoke inhalation.
Biola Kamardeen, Executive Director of the NGO, said many women were dying from smoke inhaled while cooking with firewood.
Kamardeen attributed the increasing cases of deaths to firewood smoke, particularly among women due to ignorance.
Kamardeen noted that women were at a risk because they were mostly involved in cooking with firewood.
“They sit around the fire while cooking, with eyes becoming red, nose dripping, and sometimes with babies strap on their back,’’ she said.
According to her, smoke affects pregnant women and their unborn babies, with some becoming cancer patients and lungs infections leading to preventable deaths.
Kamardeen said: “Most women, however, are not aware of the grave health, environmental risks associated with traditional open fire cooking method.
“There is the need, therefore, for huge awareness campaign in both urban and rural areas.
“This is because, not less than 72 per cent of Nigerians solely depend on firewood for cooking and have little or no idea of the health consequences.
“The campaign was necessary to enlighten the public, especially women, on the health risk associated with firewood smoke.
“Women need to be aware of the availability of clean alternative cooking methods that are smokeless, healthy and environmentally-friendly as well as cost-effective.”
She said that the NGO would sensitise the women to the dangers of cooking with firewood and the need to embrace the use of alternative clean cooking stoves.
She urged other NGOs, civil society organisations, community-based organisation, religious bodies as well as the government to support the campaign to prevent the unacceptable death among women.
Another NGO, Women’s Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE), recently said that over 93,000 Nigerians, mostly women, died annually of smoke inhalation from cooking with firewood.
WISE had said that cooking breakfast, lunch and supper with firewood was equivalent to smoking three to 20 packets of cigarettes a day.