Social, economic, and resource predictors of variability in household air pollution from cookstove emissions

October 12, 2012 · 1 comment

PLoS One. Oct 3 2012;7(10)

Social, economic, and resource predictors of variability in household air pollution from cookstove emissions.

Yadama GN, Peipert J, Sahu M, Biswas P, Dyda V. George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America.

We examine if social and economic factors, fuelwood availability, market and media access are associated with owning a modified stove and variation in household emissions from biomass combustion, a significant environmental and health concern in rural India. We analyze cross-sectional household socio-economic data, and PM(2.5) and particulate surface area concentration in household emissions from cookstoves (n = 100).

This data set combines household social and economic variables with particle emissions indexes associated with the household stove. The data are from the Foundation for Ecological Society, India, from a field study of household emissions. In our analysis, we find that less access to ready and free fuelwood and higher wealth are associated with owning a replacement/modified stove.

We also find that additional kitchen ventilation is associated with a 12% reduction in particulate emissions concentration (p<0.05), after we account for the type of stove used. We did not find a significant association between replacement/modified stove on household emissions when controlling for additional ventilation. Higher wealth and education are associated with having additional ventilation.

Social caste, market and media access did not have any effect on the presence of replacement or modified stoves or additional ventilation. While the data available to us does not allow an examination of direct health outcomes from emissions variations, adverse environmental and health impacts of toxic household emissions are well established elsewhere in the literature.

The value of this study is in its further examination of the role of social and economic factors and available fuelwood from commons in type of stove use, and additional ventilation, and their effect on household emissions. These associations are important since the two direct routes to improving household air quality among the poor are stove type and better ventilation.

Assessment of Adoption of Improved Cookstove Practices in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

October 10, 2012 · 0 comments

A Field Assessment of Adoption of Improved Cookstove Practices in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Focus on Structural Drivers, 2012.

Cynthia Waszak Geary, et al. FHI 360.

As this report focuses on improved cookstove adoption, we will operationalize this term for the reader. Adoption in the broadest sense is not an “either/or” event. There is a continuum of cookstove practices that relate to consumer actions to reduce IAP. The first step is the acquisition of an improved cookstove. An improved cookstove is a stove that is more fuel efficient and releases fewer emissions than the one previously used. Usually, improved cookstoves are compared to a traditional “three-stone” fire, but they also can be compared to something more efficient than that but less efficient than the current improved cookstove. An improved cookstove may use the same kinds of fuel previously used (like wood) or something cleaner, like liquid petroleum gas (LPG). Making a change from one kind of fuel to another is adoption of cleaner fuel. In addition, there are cleaner kitchen practices promoted to reduce indoor air pollution that may be equally beneficial as improved cookstoves. 

Chimneys can be built and windows can be put in kitchen walls, for example. Some improved cookstoves require changes in cooking behavior to realize their benefits, such as cooking two pots of food simultaneously instead of sequentially. A final issue with cooking practices is the use of multiple fuels/stoves at one time also known as “stacking” of fuels/stoves. In many households, traditional stoves are used at the same time as improved cookstoves, or the different stoves may be used for different foods. It is not merely the household acquisition of an improved cookstove, but its correct and sustained use to the relative exclusion of less efficient stoves that is critical to improving health, though any movement toward behaviors that reduce emissions are valued.

A smoke-free kitchen: initiating community based co-production for cleaner cooking

October 9, 2012 · 0 comments

A smoke-free kitchen: initiating community based co-production for cleaner cooking and cuts in carbon emissions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 4 October 2012.

Anne Jerneck, et al.

Cooking over open fire with solid fuels results in incomplete combustion and indoor air pollution (IAP) causing respiratory and other diseases leading to nearly two million premature deaths per year. In urban areas, IAP interacts with outdoor pollutants in toxic chemical mixtures affecting also other citizens and damaging regional air quality in terms of ‘brown clouds’. Deaths result mainly in women, children and infants, who are directly exposed to smoke in unventilated kitchens, thus reflecting differentiated and unequal impacts across population groups.

Despite the heavy health burden and discomfort, IAP has only recently been recognised as associated with neglected diseases. In search of synergies between adaptation and mitigation, we seek gender sensitive social innovations to halt smoke, soot and early death while reducing deforestation and carbon emissions. Using transition arenas as a participatory method for experiments and social learning we engaged with local entrepreneurs and peasant farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to initiate co-production of efficient flue-piped stoves that save energy, labour and lives.

Findings indicate that successful design, production and adoption of improved cooking stoves is possible, but the structural challenges of poverty, inequality and distrust may inhibit further diffusion and more profound processes of social learning. Insights from local studies must therefore be contextualised into broader understandings, as attempted here, while local adoption must be combined with wider initiatives and government policies into complex micro-to-macro solutions that provide forceful effects against IAP and its drivers.

Social, Economic, and Resource Predictors of Variability in Household Air Pollution from Cookstove Emissions

October 9, 2012 · 0 comments

Social, Economic, and Resource Predictors of Variability in Household Air Pollution from Cookstove Emissions. PLoS ONE, Oct 3, 2012.

Gautam N. Yadama, et al.

We examine if social and economic factors, fuelwood availability, market and media access are associated with owning a modified stove and variation in household emissions from biomass combustion, a significant environmental and health concern in rural India. We analyze cross-sectional household socio-economic data, and PM2.5 and particulate surface area concentration in household emissions from cookstoves (n = 100). This data set combines household social and economic variables with particle emissions indexes associated with the household stove.

The data are from the Foundation for Ecological Society, India, from a field study of household emissions. In our analysis, we find that less access to ready and free fuelwood and higher wealth are associated with owning a replacement/modified stove. We also find that additional kitchen ventilation is associated with a 12% reduction in particulate emissions concentration (p<0.05), after we account for the type of stove used. We did not find a significant association between replacement/modified stove on household emissions when controlling for additional ventilation. Higher wealth and education are associated with having additional ventilation.

Social caste, market and media access did not have any effect on the presence of replacement or modified stoves or additional ventilation. While the data available to us does not allow an examination of direct health outcomes from emissions variations, adverse environmental and health impacts of toxic household emissions are well established elsewhere in the literature.

The value of this study is in its further examination of the role of social and economic factors and available fuelwood from commons in type of stove use, and additional ventilation, and their effect on household emissions. These associations are important since the two direct routes to improving household air quality among the poor are stove type and better ventilation.

A comprehensive review on solar cookers

October 8, 2012 · 0 comments

A comprehensive review on solar cookers. Applied Energy, Oct 2012.

Erdem Cuce, et al.

In this paper, a thorough review of the available literature on solar cookers is presented. The review is performed in a thematic way in order to allow an easier comparison, discussion and evaluation of the findings obtained by researchers, especially on parameters affecting the performance of solar cookers. The review covers a historic overview of solar cooking technology, detailed description of various types of solar cookers, geometry parameters affecting performance of solar cookers such as booster mirrors, glazing, absorber plate, cooking pots, heat storage materials and insulation.

Moreover, thermodynamic assessment of solar cooking systems and qualitative evaluation of thermal output offered by solar cookers are analyzed in detail. Complex designs of solar cookers/ovens with and without heat storage material are illustrated and furthermore possible methods to be able to enhance the power outputs of solar cooking systems are presented. Feasibility analysis, environmental impacts and future potential of solar cookers are also considered in the study.

One mosquito coil equals 100 cigarettes

October 3, 2012 · 0 comments

One mosquito coil equals 100 cigarettes | Source: Ghanaweb, Sept 30, 2012

Smoke emitted from one mosquito repellant coil is equivalent to those of 100 cigarettes, thus causing harm to a large number of people in India, an expert said on Wednesday.

“Not many people know about it, but the damage done to your lungs by one mosquito coil is equivalent to the damage done by 100 cigarettes. This was according to a recent study conducted in Malyasia,” said Chest Research Foundation director Sandeep Salvi.

He was speaking at the conference ‘Air Pollution and Our Health‘, organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) along with the Indian Council for Medical Research and the Indian Medical Association. Salvi said there is a lack of awareness about the impact of air pollution on human health.

Pointing out the “lack of research culture” among Indian doctors, Salvi said that indoor air pollution too is a health risk factor. Participants at the event, which included doctors and health researchers, also spoke about vehicular air pollution in the capital. According to estimates, about 55 per cent of Delhi’s population lives within 500 metres from main roads – and is, therefore, prone to a variety of physical disorders.

“The vehicular pollution is a major concern for the environment. The rising incidents of genetic disorder has a lot to do with air pollution. India loses one million children under five because of respiratory problems every year,” said Sanjeev Bagai, the chief executive officer of Batra Hospitals. He said industries also contribute to the air pollution and these need to be shifted out of the capital.

Public health: Where there’s smoke

October 2, 2012 · 0 comments

Nature 489, S18–S20 (27 September 2012) doi:10.1038/489S18a

Public health: Where there’s smoke

Virginia Hughes

Air pollution and smoking have made COPD a major problem in China, now compounded by outdated diagnostics and treatments — and experts say it’s bound to get worse.

A visitor to China may well notice the country’s smog problem as the plane descends. Smog levels in large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai frequently dwarf those of other metropolitan centres. Then there’s the cigarette smoke. China, the world’s most populous country, claims about one-third of the world’s smokers — at least 300 million people — who collectively puff 1.7 trillion cigarettes a year. In rural areas, cigarette smoke permeates buses, shops and even doctors’ offices.

Beyond cigarette smoke and outdoor air pollution, hundreds of millions of Chinese people breathe unclean air while working in factories and on industrial-scale farms or while cooking at wood-burning stoves inside their homes.

Bangladesh-Adult Cardiopulmonary Mortality and Indoor Air Pollution

October 2, 2012 · 0 comments

Global Health, Sept 2012

Adult Cardiopulmonary Mortality and Indoor Air Pollution: 10-Year Retrospective Cohort Study in a Low-Income Rural Setting

Dewan S. Alam, et al.
Email: dsalam@icddrb.org
Centre for Control of Chronic Diseases (CCCD), International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), 68 Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sharani, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh

Background – Indoor air pollution (IAP) due to solid fuel use is a major risk factor of respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Rural Matlab in Bangladesh has been partly supplied with natural gas since the early 1990s, which offered a natural experiment to investigate the long-term impact of IAP on cardiopulmonary mortality.

Objective – This study sought to compare adult cardiopulmonary mortality in relation to household fuel type as a surrogate for exposure to indoor air pollution.

Study Design – This was a retrospective cohort study. We identified all households in 11 villages in Matlab, Bangladesh, and categorized them as either supplied with natural gas or using solid fuel for cooking or heating since January 1, 2001. Cause-specific mortality data including cardiopulmonary deaths were obtained through verbal autopsy as part of a permanent surveillance. Person-years (PYs) of exposure were computed from baseline until the event. Subjects with missing information on cause of death, outward migration, or on fuel type were excluded. Event rates for each fuel category were calculated as well as the relative risk of dying with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Setting– Rural Matlab, Bangladesh.

Patients – Adults 18 years of age or older.

Outcome Measure – Death from cardiopulmonary diseases over a 10-year period.

Findings – In total, 946 cardiopulmonary deaths occurred with 884 in the solid-fuel and 62 in the gas-supplied households (n=7,565 and n=508, respectively) over the 10-year period. Cardiopulmonary death rate was 6.2 per 1,000 PYs in the solid-fuel group and 5.3 per 1,000 PYs in people living in households using gas. Mortality due to cardiovascular event was 5.1 and 4.8 per 1,000 PY in people from the solid-fuel and gas-supplied households, respectively, and the incident rate ratio was 1.07 (95% CI: 0.82 to 1.41). Mortality due to respiratory disease was 1.2 and 0.5 per 1,000 PYs in the solid-fuel and gas-supplied groups, respectively, and the incident rate ratio was 2.26 (95% CI: 1.02 to 4.99).

Interpretation – Household solid-fuel use is associated with increased respiratory mortality and nonsignificantly increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. Reduction of exposure to pollution due to in-household solid-fuel use is likely to improve survival in Bangladeshi and similar populations.

Improved Cooking Stoves that End up in Smoke?

September 28, 2012 · 0 comments

Improved Cooking Stoves that End up in Smoke? A comment on Hanna, Duflo and Greenstone (2012).

Michael Grimm, Chair for Development Economics at the University of Passau, Professor of Development
Economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Board Member of the Rotterdam Global Health Initiative. Contact: michael.grimm@uni-passau.de

Jörg Peters, Researcher in the research division “Environment and Resources” at the RWI in Essen.
Contact: joerg.peters@rwi-essen.de

More than 2.7 billion people in developing countries rely on biomass for cooking with profound implications for their well-being. Two million people die every year due to cooking related smoke emissions – more than are killed by malaria. In recent years, an international movement has gained momentum on the level of the United Nations that intends to combat this plight by the dissemination of improved cooking stoves. A recent study conducted by Hanna, Duflo and Greenstone based on a field experiment in India has attracted much attention, also in the popular press. It does not confirm the optimistic results on the impacts of improved cooking stoves that hitherto can be found in the literature.

Editorial notes in newspapers like the New York Times took up findings fromthe study and vehemently criticized the international efforts to improve access to cleaner cooking fuels as ineffective. The present RWI Positionen policy paper argues that this journalistic verdict is premature and that the results of the study are overstressed. While the study is in principle a meaningful contribution to the improved stoves literature, its findings are very specific to the local environment in which it was conducted and as we argue the insights can barely be transferred to other areas in the developing world.

Household Smoke Pollution and Chronic Cor Pulmonale

September 27, 2012 · 0 comments

Household Smoke Pollution and Chronic Cor Pulmonale. (2012) Global Heart 7:3. 261-263.

Pandey MR.

New studies are needed to apply the more sensitive modern instrumentation in consistent protocols. It will surely reveal much more cor pulmonale than shown by the old criteria in these populations. Moreover, early detection of cor pulmonale is very important from boththe prevention and treatment points of view, as we have seen that the prognosis is very poor in advanced cases.

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