Use electricity or gas instead of coal or wood for cooking and heating
Coal or wood cooking was associated with about 10% higher mortality, and solid-fuel heating with about 14% higher mortality. People who had switched to electricity or gas had 13%–33% lower mortality than those still using solid fuels.
What it takes
For rural Chinese households, replacing the stove and paying for fuel costs hundreds to over a thousand renminbi annually. Equipment replacement is a one-time task; most urban households already use electricity or gas.
What you may gain
A Chinese prospective cohort followed about 271,000 adults without cardiovascular disease. Compared with clean fuels, solid fuels were associated with HR 1.11 for cooking and HR 1.14 for heating. Compared with continuing solid-fuel use, switching was associated with HR 0.87 for cooking and HR 0.67 for heating. Outdoor PM2.5 is a separate exposure: a meta-analysis of 104 cohorts found 8% higher natural-cause mortality per 10 µg/m³ higher long-term concentration (RR 1.08). Natural causes means disease rather than accidental death.
Context & considerations
These studies are observational. Households switching fuel are often wealthier, so the HR of 0.67 includes socioeconomic differences. Personal options for outdoor PM2.5 are limited, mainly moving, masks and air purifiers. No mortality-endpoint purifier study is cited, so no mortality figure is assigned here.
Research & references
Yu K et al. (2018). Association of Solid Fuel Use With Risk of Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality in Rural China. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.2151 ; Chen J, Hoek G (2020). Long-term exposure to PM and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Environment International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.105974