Solar cooking and health

The good news is that it is possible to breathe fresh air at the same time as cooking – using a solar cooker. Solar cooking produces no smoke at all.

In the past, the main reason for people adopting solar cooking was to reduce the environmental degradation caused by using too much fuel wood. More recently, respiratory diseases caused by toxic smoke from cooking fires have been recognized as a major health problem. They kill 1.5 million women and children each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Solar cookers address these major threats to health as well.

Solar cooking technology has been around for decades, but has been poorly understood and has not been widely disseminated. Here are some ideas on what solar cooking is about, and its capabilities – as well as its limitations.

This Technical Brief describes how overcoming resistance to change is needed and outlines the benefits of solar energy for cooking.