Indoor air pollution is a global health issue, not just a domestic heating one

A kitchen in a traditional house with smoke from a tea kettle heated with wood fire in a village in Nagaland, India. balajisrinivasan/Shutterstock

When indoor air pollution makes the news in western countries, it often feels like a local issue. One week it focuses on wood-burning stoves. Another it is gas cookers or the question of whether people should open their windows more often in winter.

In developing countries, indoor air pollution is framed as a development problem, linked to people cooking and heating with wood...