NPR’s food blog “The Salt” reports on the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves’ efforts to “bring in celebrities, chefs and politicians to help create awareness for the need for cleaner fuels and better cookstoves,” the smoke and gases from which contribute to nearly two million deaths a year — more than malaria — according to a study released by the WHO last week. “The technology is easy, but getting the stoves and cleaner fuels to impoverished millions is not,” the blog writes. 

“It’s not as simple as saying, OK, buy something cleaner and your life will improve. There are social and economic barriers galore,” according to the blog, which adds, “National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins and others say, ‘Success has been limited by a number of factors … including a lack of awareness of the problem, limited research into the health risks, lack of affordable improved stoves or fuels that reduce exposures to safer levels, and the logistical challenges of solving a problem that affects almost three billion of the poorest people on the planet'” (Joyce, 10/18).