Ethanol Scheme Bids to Clean Up Cooking

June 26, 2012 · 0 comments

Source: David Biello, Scientific American, May 31, 2012

Ethanol Scheme Bids to Clean Up Cooking

A new effort aims to build a for-profit, bio-based economy in Mozambique involving rotation farming, ethanol and clean cookstoves

A farmer in Mozambique grows peas, beans and cassava in rotation—enough to feed the family with a little to spare. The farmer then sells that excess to CleanStar Mozambique, which dries and packages the produce for sale in the capital, Maputo. But the company also takes the surplus cassava, a starch-filled root and local food staple, and sends it to an ethanol fermentation plant built by ICM, a U.S. ethanol company, that employs enzymes produced by Denmark-based Novozymes. The ethanol produced is then sold in reusable plastic bottles to people in Maputo who own one of the 3,000 or so ethanol-burning clean cookstoves sold by CleanStar. When the fuel runs out, more can be purchased at an incipient network of CleanStar shops.

CLEAN STOVE: This ethanol-burning stove will cut down on the soot from charcoal burning that otherwise blackens homes and lungs. Image: Courtesy of Novozymes

“We want to show that there is this idea of a bio-based society,” says chemical engineer Thomas Nagy, executive vice president for stakeholder relations at Novozymes, which helped start and fund the scheme. “This is not a philanthropic project.”

Novozymes and its corporate partners hope to create a bio-based, sustainable economy in Mozambique. Such an economy could point the way to reducing the two million annual deaths worldwide that result from breathing in smoky indoor air caused by burning charcoal. Currently, charcoal is the fuel of choice in much of the world and a nearly $10-billion market across sub-Saharan Africa. That is the market this ethanol-burning cookstove—and bio-based economy—aims to disrupt.

“Ethanol burns very clean,” Nagy notes. The CleanStar venture opened its first ethanol production plant on May 17 in Dondo, capable of brewing two million liters of fuel per year. “Charcoal might be cheaper but it has less energy content per kilo[gram].”

The problem in this case is: replacing cheap charcoal, which farmers make by cutting down and burning trees, requires dependence on a much more complex, new and unproved system. “People use charcoal because it is cheap and easy,” notes a prominent development expert who declined to be identified because of relationships with various clean cookstove donors and providers. “Ethanol is neither.”

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Are children safe indoor from outdoor air pollution? A short review

June 26, 2012 · 0 comments

Open Journal of Pediatrics, June 2012

Are children safe indoor from outdoor air pollution? A short review

Giovanni Ghirga*, Mara Pipere

International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE) Alto Lazio, Civitavecchia, Rome, Italy
Email:  gi8589pa@virgilio.it

Background: Air pollution is a serious threat to chil- dren health. Given that children spend over 80% of their time indoors, understanding transport of pollutants from outdoor to indoor environments is im- portant for assessing the impact of exposure to out- door pollution on children health. The most common advice given during a smoke pollution episode is to stay indoors. How well this works depends on how clean the indoor air is and how pollutants from out- door air contribute to pollutants load in indoor air.

Objective: To assess the amount of outdoor air pollution coming indoors threatening children health.

Methods: A Medline/EMBASE search of scientific articles was performed to evaluate the indoor-to- outdoor (I/O) concentration ratios of two main pol- lutants: ultrafine particles (UFP) and ozone (O3).

Result: Under infiltration condition, the highest I/O ra-tios (0.6 – 0.9) were usually observed for larger UFP (70 – 100 nm), while the lowest I/O ratios (0.1 – 0.4) occurred typically around 10 – 20 nm. O3 I/O ratios vary according to air exchange and may be 0.6 – 0.8 for interiors having a large volume exchange with outdoor air (i.e. open windows) and 0.3 – 0.4 with conventional air conditioning systems.

Conclusions: In the absence of indoor sources or activities, indoor UFP particles originate from outdoors. O3 concentration indoors may reach concentration similar to outdoors. Environmental and energy policies must also explicitly account for all the impacts of fossil fuel combustion on child health and development.

The Health Consequences of Indoor Air Pollution: A Review of the Solutions and Challenges  

June 26, 2012 · 1 comment

White Paper – The Health Consequences of Indoor Air Pollution: A Review of the Solutions and Challenges

Daniel Polsky; Caroline Ly

Indoor Air Pollution from solid fuel usage kills 2 million people annually. These deaths are primarily concentrated in low and lower‐middle income countries. While many countries have reduced their population’s reliance on solid fuels, low income countries with limited economic growth and/or Sub‐Saharan African countries have seen large increases between 2000 and 2010 of 45% and 31% in their populations’ exposures, respectively. Targeted policies to transition populations to cleaner, modern fuels that take into account specific country contexts are needed to avoid leaving behind these populations.  Liquefied Petroleum Gas provides one clean alternative, though the higher initial costs may be a barrier in some markets.  More research is needed to understand the appropriateness of policies given the health, economic and environmental tradeoffs among the fuel alternatives.

Childhood exposure to fine particulate matter and black carbon and the development of new wheeze between ages 5 and 7

June 25, 2012 · 0 comments

Environ Int. 2012 Sep;45:44-50.

Childhood exposure to fine particulate matter and black carbon and the development of new wheeze between ages 5 and 7 in an urban prospective cohort.

Jung KH, Hsu SI, Yan B, Moors K, Chillrud SN, Ross J, Wang S, Perzanowski MS, Kinney PL, Whyatt RM, Perera FP, Miller RL. Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care of Medicine, Department of Medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, PH8E, 630 W. 168 St. New York, NY 10032, United States.

BACKGROUND: While exposures to urban fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)) and soot-black carbon (soot-BC) have been associated with asthma exacerbations, there is limited evidence on whether these pollutants are associated with the new development of asthma or allergy among young inner city children. We hypothesized that childhood exposure to PM(2.5) and the soot-BC component would be associated with the report of new wheeze and development of seroatopy in an inner city birth cohort.

METHODS: As part of the research being conducted by the Columbia Center of Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) birth cohort study in New York City, two-week integrated residential monitoring of PM(2.5), soot-BC (based on a multi-wavelength integrating sphere method), and modified absorption coefficient (Abs*; based on the smoke stain reflectometer) was conducted between October 2005 and May 2011 for 408 children at ages 5-6years old. Residential monitoring was repeated 6months later (n=262) to capture seasonal variability. New wheeze was identified through the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaires during up to 3years of follow-up and compared to a reference group that reported never wheeze, remitted wheeze, or persistent wheeze. Specific immunoglobulin (Ig) E against cockroach, mouse, cat, and dust mite and total IgE levels was measured in sera at ages 5 and 7years.

RESULTS: PM(2.5), soot-BC, and Abs* measured at the first visit were correlated moderately with those at the second visit (Pearson r>0.44). Using logistic regression models, a positive association between PM(2.5) and new wheeze was found with adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence intervals] of 1.51 [1.05-2.16] per interquartile range (IQR). Positive but non-significant association was found between the development of new wheeze and soot-BC and (OR 1.40 [0.96-2.05]), and Abs* (OR 1.57 [0.91-2.68]); Significantly positive associations were found between air pollutant measurements and new wheeze when restricting to those participants with repeat home indoor measurements 6months apart. Associations between pollutants and IgE levels were not detected.

CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest that childhood exposure to indoor air pollution, much of which penetrated readily from outdoor sources, may contribute to the development of wheeze symptoms among children ages 5 to 7years.

Systemic inflammatory changes and increased oxidative stress in rural Indian women cooking with biomass fuels

June 25, 2012 · 0 comments

Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2012 Jun 15;261(3):255-62

Systemic inflammatory changes and increased oxidative stress in rural Indian women cooking with biomass fuels.

Dutta A, Ray MR, Banerjee A.

College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China; Department of Experimental Hematology, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, 37, S.P. Mukherjee Road, Kolkata-700 026, India.

The study was undertaken to investigate whether regular cooking with biomass aggravates systemic inflammation and oxidative stress that might result in increase in the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in rural Indian women compared to cooking with a cleaner fuel like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). A total of 635 women (median age 36years) who cooked with biomass and 452 age-matched control women who cooked with LPG were enrolled. Serum interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) were measured by ELISA. Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by leukocytes was measured by flow cytometry, and erythrocytic superoxide dismutase (SOD) was measured by spectrophotometry.

Hypertension was diagnosed following the Seventh Report of the Joint Committee. Tachycardia was determined as pulse rate >100beats per minute. Particulate matter of diameter less than 10 and 2.5μm (PM(10) and PM(2.5), respectively) in cooking areas was measured using real-time aerosol monitor. Compared with control, biomass users had more particulate pollution in indoor air, their serum contained significantly elevated levels of IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α and CRP, and ROS generation was increased by 37% while SOD was depleted by 41.5%, greater prevalence of hypertension and tachycardia compared to their LPG-using neighbors. PM(10) and PM(2.5) levels were positively associated with markers of inflammation, oxidative stress and hypertension.

Inflammatory markers correlated with raised blood pressure. Cooking with biomass exacerbates systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, hypertension and tachycardia in poor women cooking with biomass fuel and hence, predisposes them to increased risk of CVD development compared to the controls. Systemic inflammation and oxidative stress may be the mechanistic factors involved in the development of CVD.

Low demand for nontraditional cookstove technologies

June 25, 2012 · 0 comments

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Jun 11.

Low demand for nontraditional cookstove technologies.

Mobarak AM, Dwivedi P, Bailis R, Hildemann L, Miller G. School of Management, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511.

Biomass combustion with traditional cookstoves causes substantial environmental and health harm. Nontraditional cookstove technologies can be efficacious in reducing this adverse impact, but they are adopted and used at puzzlingly low rates. This study analyzes the determinants of low demand for nontraditional cookstoves in rural Bangladesh by using both stated preference (from a nationally representative survey of rural women) and revealed preference (assessed by conducting a cluster-randomized trial of cookstove prices) approaches.

We find consistent evidence across both analyses suggesting that the women in rural Bangladesh do not perceive indoor air pollution as a significant health hazard, prioritize other basic developmental needs over nontraditional cookstoves, and overwhelmingly rely on a free traditional cookstove technology and are therefore not willing to pay much for a new nontraditional cookstove.

Efforts to improve health and abate environmental harm by promoting nontraditional cookstoves may be more successful by designing and disseminating nontraditional cookstoves with features valued more highly by users, such as reduction of operating costs, even when those features are not directly related to the cookstoves’ health and environmental impacts.

Prevalence of Acute Respiratory Infections in Women and Children in Western Sierra Leone

June 25, 2012 · 0 comments

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2012, 9, 2252-2265

Prevalence of Acute Respiratory Infections in Women and Children in Western Sierra Leone due to Smoke from Wood and Charcoal Stoves

Eldred Tunde Taylor, et al.

This study investigated the prevalence of ARI potentially caused by smoke from wood and charcoal stoves in Western Sierra Leone, as these two fuels are the predominant fuel types used for cooking. A cross sectional study was conducted for 520 women age 15–45 years; and 520 children under 5 years of age in homes that burn wood and charcoal. A questionnaire assessing demographic, household and exposure characteristics and ARI was administered to every woman who further gave information for the child. Suspended particulate matter (SPM) was continuously monitored in fifteen homes. ARI prevalence revealed 32% and 24% for women, 64% and 44% for children in homes with wood and charcoal stoves, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders for each group, the odds ratio of having suffered from ARI was similar for women, but remained large for children in homes with wood stoves relative to charcoal stoves (OR = 1.14, 95%CI: 0.71–1.82) and (OR = 2.03, 95%CI:1.31–3.13), respectively. ARI prevalence was higher for children in homes with wood stoves compared with homes with charcoal stoves, but ARI prevalence for both types of fuels is higher compared with reported prevalence elsewhere. To achieve a reduction in ARI would require switching from wood and charcoal to cleaner fuels.

Jacob Moss – The Worst Health Risk You’ve Never Heard of

June 21, 2012 · 0 comments

Source: Forbes, June 6, 2012

The Worst Health Risk You’ve Never Heard of (guest post by Jacob Moss)

This post is written by Jacob Moss, Director of the US Cookstoves Initiative in the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Partnerships at the US Department of State.

For much of the developing world, preparing a meal is a one of the most dangerous activities a woman can undertake.  She may spend half a day scavenging for fuel to build a fire.  She must then spend hours tending the fire. Throughout the process, the home is filled with acrid, toxic smoke that irritates eyes and burns lungs.

Exposure to smoke from cooking over an open fire kills two million people each year.  Young kids die from respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia, while women die from chronic lung diseases such as emphysema.  Many millions more will suffer from severe burns, impaired breathing, chronic cough, or even blindness.  The economic impacts are also considerable – women and girls who cook on traditional fires spend up to three hours each day collecting fuel, time that could be much better spent on farming, starting a small enterprise, or going to school.  In conflict zones, collecting fuel puts women and girls at risk of personal attack and rape.  Cooking with wood also contributes to forest degradation, loss of wildlife habitat, and climate change.  Open fire cooking accounts for over 20 percent of black carbon, one of the worst near-term contributors to climate change.

Cleaner stoves that dramatically reduce smoke will go a long way to reducing these health, economic, and environmental risks.  More fuel-efficient stoves will reduce the time spent collecting fuel and relieve some of the pressure on scarce natural resources. It’s clear that the use of cleaner, more fuel-efficient stoves offers dramatic benefits.

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Bronchial hyperresponsiveness in women with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease related to wood smoke

June 21, 2012 · 0 comments

Int Journal of COPD, June 2012

Bronchial hyperresponsiveness in women with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease related to wood smoke

Purpose: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) related to wood smoke exposure is characterized by important inflammation of the central and peripheral airways without significant emphysema. The objective of this study is to describe the bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) level in women with COPD related to wood smoke exposure and to compare it with the BHR in women with COPD related to tobacco smoking.

Materials and methods: Two groups of women with stable COPD were studied: (1) wood smoke exposed (WS-COPD); and (2) tobacco smoke exposed (TS-COPD). A methacholine challenge test (MCT) was performed in all patients according to American Thoracic Society criteria. BHR levels were compared using the methacholine concentration, which caused a 20% fall in the FEV1 (PC20).

Results: Thirty-one patients, 19 with WS-COPD and 12 with TS-COPD, were included. There were no significant differences between the groups in baseline FVC, FEV1, IC, FEF25–75, and FEF25–75/FVC. All 31 patients had a positive MCT (PC20 , 16 mg/mL) and the fall in the FEV1 and IC was similar in both groups. The severity of BHR was significantly higher in the WS-COPD patients (PC20: 0.39 mg/mL) than in the TS-COPD patients (PC20: 1.24 mg/mL) (P = 0.028). The presence of cough, phlegm, and dyspnea during the test were similar in both groups.

Conclusion: We found moderate to severe BHR in women with WS-COPD, which was more severe than in the TS-COPD women with similar age and airflow obstruction. This paper suggests that the structural and inflammatory changes induced by the chronic exposure to wood smoke, described in other studies, can explain the differences with TS-COPD patients. Future studies may clarify our understanding of the impact of BHR on COPD physiopathology, phenotypes, and treatment strategies.

RFP for Multiscale Geospatial Mapping of Non-Renewable Fuel Harvesting for Biomass Fuels

June 21, 2012 · 0 comments

From Sumi Mehta, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

Dear colleagues,

Over the next three years, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Alliance) will support a small, strategic portfolio of targeted research needed to strengthen the evidence base necessary to precisely quantify the benefits of clean cookstoves. For climate research, the initial focus will be on filling gaps in the sector’s understanding of the impact that fuel collection for cooking has on environmental degradation, including deforestation, soil erosion, and other natural resource impacts. More spatially resolved information on the specific areas where collection of firewood could contribute to environmental degradation would help identify areas where scaling clean cookstoves and fuels could provide the greatest environmental benefits. Global mapping of non-renewable fuel collection would be especially useful in identifying the areas of greatest potential environmental impact.

The Alliance is seeking qualified researchers to conduct multiscale geospatial mapping of non-renewable fuel harvesting for biomass fuels. The main objective of this request for proposals is to develop geospatial estimates of the fraction of non-renewable biomass (fNRB) at national and sub-national levels for Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America, thus enabling clean cookstove and fuel programs to incorporate environmental concerns, including sustainability of fuelwood and potential carbon offsets, into their planning processes.

As much as $500,000 will be available for RFP 12-2.  The deadline for submission of proposals is July 30, 2012.

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