Globally, nearly three billion people use solid fuels on traditional stoves or open fires for cooking and space heating. The Global Burden of
Disease Study 2010 estimates that exposure to smoke from cooking is the fourth worst risk factor for disease in developing countries. Based in
the country’s poorest rural states, the project makes efficient cook stoves affordable to low-income households, reducing fuel use by as much as
60% and reducing exposure to harmful indoor air pollution.

The high-quality, affordable plancha wood stoves which are sold by this project have been specifically designed to be locally appropriate for the communities in Mexico
and replace inefficient, traditional, three-stone fires. Exposure to cook stove smoke causes more premature deaths globally than malaria or tuberculosis and many more suffer
non-fatal illnesses. The stove burns firewood more effectively to reduce incomplete combustion and the subsequent indoor air pollution, which is mainly carbon monoxide
and particulate matter.