Exposure to wood smoke increases arterial stiffness and decreases heart rate variability

June 18, 2013 · 0 comments

Part Fibre Toxicol. 2013 Jun 6;10(1):20.

Exposure to wood smoke increases arterial stiffness and decreases heart rate variability in humans.

Unosson J, Blomberg A, Sandström T, Muala A, Boman C, Nyström R, Westerholm R, Mills NL, Newby DE, Langrish JP, Bosson JA.

BACKGROUND: Emissions from biomass combustion are a major source of indoor and outdoor air pollution, and are estimated to cause millions of premature deaths worldwide annually. Whilst adverse respiratory health effects of biomass exposure are well established, less is known about its effects on the cardiovascular system. In this study we assessed the effect of exposure to wood smoke on heart rate, blood pressure, central arterial stiffness and heart rate variability in otherwise healthy persons.

METHODS: Fourteen healthy non-smoking subjects participated in a randomized, double-blind crossover study. Subjects were exposed to dilute wood smoke (mean particle concentration of 314+/-38 mug/m3) or filtered air for three hours during intermittent exercise. Heart rate, blood pressure, central arterial stiffness and heart rate variability were measured at baseline and for one hour post-exposure.

RESULTS: Central arterial stiffness, measured as augmentation index, augmentation pressure and pulse wave velocity, was higher after wood smoke exposure as compared to filtered air (p < 0.01 for all), and heart rate was increased (p < 0.01) although there was no effect on blood pressure. Heart rate variability (SDNN, RMSSD and pNN50; p = 0.003, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001 respectively) was decreased one hour following exposure to wood smoke compared to filtered air.

CONCLUSIONS: Acute exposure to wood smoke as a model of exposure to biomass combustion is associated with an immediate increase in central arterial stiffness and a simultaneous reduction in heart rate variability. As biomass is used for cooking and heating by a large fraction of the global population and is currently advocated as a sustainable alternative energy source, further studies are required to establish its likely impact on cardiovascular disease.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01488500.

CNN – How cooking can be a deadly chore

June 18, 2013 · 0 comments

How cooking can be a deadly chore | Source: Allie Torgan, CNN, June 13, 2013 |

(CNN) — Whether it’s a weekend barbecue or roasting marshmallows on a camping trip, cooking over an open fire is a novelty that many Americans enjoy.

But for nearly half the world’s population, building and maintaining a fire is a daily — and often deadly — chore.

In remote villages and city slums, women tend to fires for hours on end, breathing in smoke that is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, according to the World Health Organization. Many of these women have their children close by or strapped to their chest or back, and the dangerous pollutants from the smoke can result in severe damage to their lungs as well.

Nancy Hughes witnessed this firsthand while working with a medical team in Guatemala more than a decade ago.

“There were doctors on the medical team who could not put tubes down the babies’ throats because the throats were so choked with creosote,” said Hughes, a 70-year-old grandmother who lives in Eugene, Oregon. “Imagine you’ve got a new baby and you couldn’t save that baby’s life … and it’s because of cooking.”

Nancy Hughes, left, spent years working with engineers on a cleaner portable stove.

Inhaling this polluted air has also been linked to pneumonia, heart disease, lung cancer, low birth weight and respiratory infections, just to name a few.

Hughes spent years working with engineers to create the Ecocina, a stove that burns cleaner to make it safer for people and better for the environment. In 2008, she founded StoveTeam International, which she says has established factories that have produced more than 37,000 stoves and improved the lives of more than 280,000 people in Latin America.

Cooking shouldn’t kill,” she said.

An estimated 4 million people each year die from exposure to cookstove smoke, according to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (PDF). But Hughes and her group are trying to help change that. By using a cleaner combustion process, the Ecocina stove reduces carbon emissions and particulate matter by 70%. The quick-cooking unit is also cost-efficient and portable, and it requires no installation or external chimney.

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Cornell University – Cook Stove Design Competition

June 18, 2013 · 0 comments

Cornell University – Cook Stove Design Competition

The Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management is accepting submissions for its “Cook Stove Design Competition.”  This competition seeks out-of-the-box, innovative design ideas for cook stoves targeting low-income households in emerging markets.  Designers, engineers and innovators from around the world are invited to submit ideas that may shape the features and design of clean cook stoves based on kerosene or biofuels through either iterations of existing technology or entirely new designs.

Household Air Pollution in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Health Risks and Research Priorities

June 5, 2013 · 0 comments

Household Air Pollution in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Health Risks and Research Priorities. PLoS Med 10(6): June 2013.

Martin WJ II, Glass RI, Araj H, Balbus J, Collins FS, et al.

Summary Points

  • Household air pollution (HAP) from solid fuel (biomass or coal) combustion is the leading environmental cause of death and disability in the world.
  • Many governments, multinational companies and nongovernmental organizations are developing programs to promote access to improved stoves and clean fuels, but there is little demonstrated evidence of health benefits from most of these programs or technologies.
  • A stakeholder meeting hosted by U.S. government sponsors identified research gaps and priorities related to the health effects of HAP and unsafe stoves in seven areas (cancer; infections; cardiovascular disease; maternal, neonatal, and child health; respiratory disease; burns; and ocular disorders) and gaps in four cross-cutting areas that are relevant to research on HAP (exposure and biomarker assessment, women’s empowerment, behavioral approaches, and program evaluation).
  • It is vital that researchers partner with implementing organizations and governments to evaluate the impacts of improved stove and fuel programs to identify and share evidence regarding the outcomes of the many implementation programs underway, including the socio-behavioral aspects of household energy use

Energy and Human Health

June 3, 2013 · 0 comments

Energy and Human Health. Annu. Rev. Public Health 2013. 34:159–88.

Kirk R. Smith, Howard Frumkin, et al.

Energy use is central to human society and provides many health benefits. But each source of energy entails some health risks. This article reviews the health impacts of each major source of energy, focusing on those with major implications for the burden of disease globally. The biggest health impacts accrue to the harvesting and burning of solid fuels, coal and biomass, mainly in the form of occupational health risks and household and general ambient air pollution.

Lack of access to clean fuels and electricity in the world’s poor households is a particularly serious risk for health. Although energy efficiency brings many benefits, it also entails some health risks, as do renewable energy systems, if not managed carefully. We do not review health impacts of climate change itself, which are due mostly to climate-altering pollutants from energy systems, but do discuss the potential for achieving near-term health cobenefits by reducing certain climate-related emissions.

Solar Cooker Review – June 2013

June 3, 2013 · 0 comments

Solar Cooker Review – June 2013. Solar Cookers International (SCI).

Contents

  • The Urgent Need for a More Durable CooKit
  • EPA Expo in DC
  • Letter from the ED
  • Solar Cookers in India
  • Carbon Credit Funding
  • SCI at the UN
  • News You Send
  • Solar Tech Talk
  • Tribute Gifts

Chemical characterization of biomass burning deposits from cooking stoves in Bangladesh

June 3, 2013 · 0 comments

Chemical characterization of biomass burning deposits from cooking stoves in Bangladesh. Biomass and Bioenergy, Volume 52, May 2013, Pages 122–130.

    Abdus Salam, et al.

    Biomass burning smoke deposits were characterized from cooking stoves in Brahmondi, Narsingdi, Bangladesh. Arjun, bamboo, coconut, madhabilata, mahogany, mango, rice husk coil, plum and mixed dried leaves were used as biomasses. Smoke deposits were collected from the ceiling (above the stove) of the kitchen on aluminum foil. Deposits samples were analyzed with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy for trace elements determination. UV–visible spectrophotometer was used for ions analysis. The surface morphology of the smoke deposits was studied with scanning electron microscope (SEM). Elevated concentrations of the trace elements were observed, especially for toxic metals (Pb, Co, Cu). The highest concentration of lead was observed in rice husk coil among the determined biomasses followed by mahogany and arjun, whereas the lowest concentration was observed in bamboo. Potassium has the highest concentration among the determined trace elements followed by calcium, iron and titanium. Trace elements such as potassium, calcium, iron showed significant variation among different biomass burning smoke deposits. The average concentrations of sulfate, nitrate, and phosphate were 38.0, 0.60, 0.73 mg kg−1, respectively. The surface morphology was almost similar for these biomass burning deposit samples. The Southeast Asian biomass burning smoke deposits had distinct behavior from European and USA wood fuels combustion.

    WASHplus Weekly: Focus on Cookstove Fuels

    May 31, 2013 · 0 comments

    Issue 103 | May 31, 2013 | Focus on Cookstove Fuels

    This issue contains recent studies and resources on several types of fuels used in cookstoves: biochar, biogas, wood, charcoal, ethanol, Jatropha, kerosene, and solar energy. Some of the resources include a recent World Bank review of biomass fuels and improved cookstoves in Central America and a country and regional analysis of solid fuel use. Also included is a video by Julie Greene of Solar Cookers International that discusses how solar cookers can benefit the environment and people, especially women and girls.

    3ie Evaluation – A rapid assessment randomised-controlled trial of improved cookstoves in rural Ghana

    May 28, 2013 · 0 comments

    A rapid assessment randomised-controlled trial of improved cookstoves in rural Ghana, 2012.

    Jason Burwen and David I. Levine. The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).

    We conducted a rapid assessment randomised-controlled trial to quantify changes in fuel use, exposure to smoke and self-reported health attributable to deployment of an improved wood cookstove in the Upper West region of Ghana. Women trainers from neighbouring villages taught participants to build an improved cookstove and demonstrated optimal cooking techniques on such stoves. Participants were then randomly assigned to construct improved stoves at their homes immediately (treatments) or in a few months (controls). Several weeks after the treatments built their new stoves, all participants engaged in acooking test while wearing a carbon monoxide monitor.

    At that time, we surveyed participants on cooking activity, fuel wood gathering, self-reported health and socioeconomic status. At a subset of homes, we also installed stove usage monitors on the improved and traditional stove for the following three weeks. During the cooking tests, treatments used 5 per cent less fuel wood than controls, but the difference was not statistically significant. There were no detectable reductions in a household’s weekly time gathering wood or in exposure to carbon monoxide.

    In contrast, there was a sharp decline in participants’ self-reported symptoms associated with cooking, such as burning eyes, and in respiratory symptoms, such as chest pain and a runny nose. Stove usage monitors show treatments used their new stove on about half of the days monitored and reduced use of their old stoves by about 25 per cent. When we returned to three of the villages, eight months after project implementation, about half of the improved stoves showed evidence of recent usage. Overall, the new stoves were not successful, but the evaluation was. Our methods offer a rigorous modest-cost method for evaluating user uptake, field-based stove performance and exposure to smoke.

    The SPARK Initiative

    May 22, 2013 · 1 comment

    Headed by the University of Oregon’s Global Oregon and of Office of International Affairs, the Spark Initiative seeks to unite a community of parties interested in cookstoves and their implications, attract students to research and internship opportunities within cookstove businesses and nonprofit networks, and generate new partnerships between members of the Oregon University System and local experts. 

    Cookstoves may sound small scale and prosaic. And indeed, they are quintessentially everyday and ordinary. They are part of the daily lives of billions of people in developing regions who still cook on wood fires. Gathering wood for these fires consumes significant amounts of forest resources and time, especially on the part of women. Traditional cookstoves use up a lot of fuel, adding to deforestation pressures. They emit high levels of particulates and greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change.  Add up this quotidian impact, and you have a major global environmental and human resource challenge.

    The inaugural Spark! cookstove event will take place on Friday, May 17 at the Erb Memorial Union and amphitheater at the University of Oregon. The half-day event will feature a keynote speech by Peter Scott of BurnDesign lab, panels by local experts and practitioners, and live stove demonstrations.

     

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