ILOILO CITY — Indoor cooking using charcoal and wood is one of the major sources of indoor pollution in Iloilo, which endangers the lungs.
Engr. Noel Hechanova, head of the city environment and natural resources office (CENRO), on Wednesday explained that indoor cooking emits “particulate matter” that poses danger to health.
It releases similar emission as that coming from vehicle exhaust. “The smaller it is, the more dangerous it is for lungs,” he said.
Hechanova said as early as last year, the city government already started its information and education campaign regarding health impacts of indoor cooking and the alternatives, which include the utilization of green cook stove and ventilation like chimneys.
“As far as I know, we are the only city to have this kind of program,” he said.
This topic will be brought to a bigger platform when around 600 environmental managers from the Philippine gather in this city sometime June next year for the national Clean Air Summit.
As part of the preparations, Hechanova said the Asian Development Bank (ADB), one of the partners for the summit, funded a research survey about indoor cooking practices in the Philippines with Iloilo and Cabanatuan as pilot sites.
He said that last week, scoping activity was conducted in this city to determine the scope of the survey. It was carried out by the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology and CENRO.
The ADB-funded survey, to be conducted by the same UP institute, will cover some 200 households in Iloilo City. The respondent will be asked to cook in order to measure the indoor pollutants.
The result of the survey will be presented in the summit.
Meantime, in addition to indoor pollution, another topic that will be discussed in the summit is transport planning to address outdoor pollution.
Hechanova said traffic is a major cause of outdoor pollution based on a survey by the German Technical Cooperation in 2012 in Iloilo City and Cagayan de Oro.
Indoor pollution focusing on indoor cooking and transport planning for outdoor pollution are new topics, he said.
He said participants will come up with an action plan on how they will respond to indoor and outdoor pollutions.
“This (summit) is designed for environmental managers. When they go back to their respective places, they are on their own. What is important is that we have action plan,” he said.
The proposed summit has the support of the Clean Air Asia, ADB, Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners, and the Philippine League of Local Environment and Natural Resources Officers. (Perla Lena/PNA)
