The Environmental Health Risk We Hardly Talk About
The WHO calls this the world’s largest single environmental health risk
Growing up in rural Bangladesh, I spent a significant part of my childhood collecting crop waste, dry tree branches, dry banana leaves and bamboo leaves to help my mom cook our meal in the earthen oven we had at that time.
Holding the dry banana leaves with my small hands — trying to tear them from the plant with all my strength — was an exciting experience. And, of course, the crisp murmuring sound of dry bamboo leaves beneath my bare feet left a long-lasting impression on me. Closing my eyes, I can still time travel those memories with a smile on my face.
Even after we moved to the capital, Dhaka, in 1998, we continued to cook in the clay oven using firewood.
Every day, while returning home from the office, my father would bring a large sack of firewood on the pillion seat of his Hero bicycle. As his office was surrounded by a dense jungle, there were plenty of firewood to collect. My mom and I would cut the wood into pieces, dry them under the sun and then use them to cook our meals. Well, my mom would do all the cooking while I sat beside her as her little helper. Sometimes, if the firewood wasn’t properly dried, it would produce thick white smoke that stung…
