Political Quotes

“I rise today to introduce the Clean Cookstoves and Fuels Support Act. This bill addresses a serious global public health and environmental issue. I am very pleased to be joined in this effort by my friend and colleague Senator Durbin. Nearly half of the world's people cook over open fires or inefficient, polluting, and unsafe cookstoves using agricultural waste, coal, dung, wood or other solid fuels. Smoke from these traditional cookstoves and open fires is associated with chronic and acute diseases that affect women and children disproportionately. The black carbon from these traditional cookstoves is also a significant driver of air pollution and climate change. Alarmingly, the World Health Organization found that in 2012 this type of air pollution claimed 4.3 million lives. Millions more are sickened from the toxic fumes, and thousands suffer burns annually from open fires or unsafe cookstoves. The Global Burden of Disease Study of 2010 doubled the mortality estimates for exposure to smoke from cookstoves, referred to as ``household air pollution,'' from 2 million to 4 million deaths annually. That is more than the deaths from malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS combined. This same study ranks household air pollution as the fourth worst overall health risk factor in the world and is the second worst health risk factor in the world for women and girls. Traditional cookstoves also create serious environmental problems.…”