Publication

This paper summarizes a study in Zimbabwe examining the link between household use of biomass fuels for cooking and birth weight. The results show that babies born to mothers cooking with wood, cow dung or straw, were on average lighter as compared to babies born to mothers using fules such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG), natural gas or electricity. The authors conclude that household use of polluting cooking fuels, which result in indoor smoke, may also cause reduced birth weight.