(http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/)
> Around 3 billion people still cook and heat their homes using solid fuels in open fires and leaky stoves. About 2.7 billion burn biomass (wood, animal dung, crop waste) and a further 0.4 billion use coal. Most are poor, and live in developing countries.
> Nearly half of deaths among children under five years old from acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) are due to particulate matter inhaled from indoor air pollution from household solid fuels (WHO, 2009).
etc etc
This isn't to say that the device is any good.
(http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/9/08-057505/en/)
> Paraffin, also known as kerosene, is among the most frequently used fuels for cooking, lighting and heating among people living in low-income communities lacking electricity in low- and middle-income countries.
> The homes themselves were modest. Almost none had running water and most were constructed of some combination of tin and wood. They averaged 2.0 rooms and 1.4 beds. Although more than 80% of participants had electricity in their home – often through illegal tapping of community electricity sources – they also reported paraffin as their primary fuel for cooking (36.6%), lighting (27.4%) and heating (95.6%). Most (92.8%) participants reported daily paraffin use, and all but one reported at least occasional paraffin use.
Kerosene is still used by very many people for lighting, (even among people who have some access to electricity). The use of kerosene for lighting causes harm.
I'd like to read any sources that you have.
Do you have any sources?
They do if you're comparing it to a kerosene lamp; kerosene has certainly not been "replaced" in parts of the world that don't have easy access to batteries or electricity in general. See the numbers elsewhere in the thread. And it apparently does use an LED light.