Poems about Household Air Pollution 

As an undergraduate at Hiram College, I learned about the role of the humanities in science and medicine. I minored in Biomedical Humanities and discovered that the arts, including literature, can influence social views of healthcare and the relationships between scientists/clinicians, individuals coping with diseases, and the general public. This inspired me to use creative writing to share the importance of my thesis research related to the global health issue of exposure to biomass smoke from cooking fires.

Breathing Biomass Smoke

Watch the orange flames dancing underneath the pot

As the biomass fuel burns into a smoky haze

That fills your lungs as you stand in the kitchen spot

And surrounds your child as she plays

The smoke travels through the branches of your bronchial tree

Slithering down into the alveoli

Every time that water is boiled for a nourishing cup of tea

And when cooking hearty dishes, like a stir fry

The noxious compounds in the smoke target your lung cells

Leading to inflammation and cell death

Your macrophages turn black as they engulf particulate materials

And airway fibrosis makes it harder to catch your breath.

Inhaling the smoke and feeling it fill your expanding lungs every day

Unable to afford a “cleaner” fuel for your home

Years later, discovering that your lungs are undergoing destruction and decay

Which a doctor diagnoses as COPD, a respiratory syndrome

Children and Cookstoves

Your children have been breathing in cookstove smoke

Which snakes into their mouths and noses

It covers them and their airways like a thick, grey cloak

And creeps around your baby as she dozes

The smoke collides with your children’s lung cells and disrupts their immunity

Making them susceptible to respiratory pathogens

Including bacteria and viruses that float throughout the community

Covertly infecting your kids as they play with their friends

Although the cells of the lung attempt to mount defenses,

The smoke impairs their immune signaling

Leading to severe symptoms and disease consequences

You see in your feverish child who is constantly coughing

A doctor says she has pneumonia after listening to her lungs

Which is the leading cause of death among children under five

Especially in families at the bottom of the energy ladder rungs

Who struggle to earn a living and survive