A DEADLY scourge is sweeping the globe – killing 4.3million people every year – but the crisis rarely hits the headlines.
Chronic lung conditions by indoor cooking fires cause more deaths than aids, TB and malaria COMBINED, devastating some of the poorest people in the world.
MATT PATRICK
MATT PATRICK
One of them is a 92-year-old Second World War hero Ghurka who was gravely injured fighting against Axis forces in Italy.
Karna Bahadur Gurung, of Khalte, around 75 miles from the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, was just 16 when he joined the 6th Ghurka Rifles.
Because of his age he was earmarked for an office job, but an officer said a combat role would ‘wean him off his mother’s milk’ and he was sent to fight in Italy towards the end of World War Two.
MATT PATRICK
A fellow soldier lit a cigarette as they sheltered in a building and a German sniper saw the flame and shot him in the shoulder.
Now he spends his days lying on a rickety bed, unable to speak, in his son’s home after a lifetime of chronic lung conditions caused by indoor air pollution.
A sad fate for a man awarded a string of medals, including The Italy Star, and the 1939-1945 Star.
His son Karna told Sun Online: “He never smoked yet he has had medicine for asthma for decades.”
Another victim is the veteran’s wife Musa Gurung, 76. Together they lost six of their nine children to disease – doubtless in part due to indoor fires.
“We all had terrible coughs,” she said. “It was horrendous. We couldn’t sleep because of the coughing.
“We all suffered from the smoke but as women we just accepted it.”
In rural Nepal the annual number of deaths from traditional cooking fires is estimated to be nearly 23,000 a year – more than double the 9,000 killed in the devastating earthquake of April 2015.
MATT PATRICK
'WHY THEY DON'T THEY JUST COOK OUTSIDE?'
In rural Nepal temperatures often plummet to below freezing. Cooking outside is not an option, especially for families with young children, and indoor fires are needed to heat the home.
But more importantly, being able to cook inside is a necessity for humans throughout history. People have always cooked inside as part of family life.
Privacy, dignity and the family unit is a huge part of every culture on earth.
Ask yourself: Would you want to cook outside in the street as your child waited for dinner next to you?
But more importantly, being able to cook inside is a necessity for humans throughout history. People have always cooked inside as part of family life.
Privacy, dignity and the family unit is a huge part of every culture on earth.
Ask yourself: Would you want to cook outside in the street as your child waited for dinner next to you?
Yet the solution costs just £80 – a huge sum for families who sometimes earn just a dollar a day.
UK charity Practical Action installs smoke hoods in some of the world’s poorest communities, where deadly open fires are vital for cooking, heating, drying and curing meat and protecting timbers from pests.
But the stoves are not installed by many households because open fires are cheap and firewood is collected by women, whose time is often not valued highly.
MATT PATRICK
There is also ignorance about the crippling health effects. Chest problems are seen as ‘part of life’ despite being expensive to treat.
Practical Action, based in Rugby, Warwickshire, pays for half the cost of a smoke hood (loans from co-operatives make up the other half) and trains local workers to install and maintain them.
The charity’s work has transformed the lives of families living in extreme poverty.
The war hero’s son Sher added: “We are delighted with the smoke hood. It’s a good scheme.
“Because of it my family will have a healthier future.”
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