January 2004
Maternal Exposure to Biomass Smoke and Reduced Birth Weight in Zimbabwe
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.
© 2004 East-West Center (EWC)
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Author:
Vinod Mishra, Xiaolei Dai, Kirk R Smith, Lasten Mika
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Issue:
114
Note:
The appendix includes tables of data from 1999, that show the distribution of births, birth weight and cooking fuel type, as well as the observed and predicted average birth weight of children in Zimbabwe.
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