Statement by Julia Roberts on World Pneumonia Day

November 10, 2011 · 0 comments

Washington – (November 10, 2011) – Academy Award-winning actor Julia Roberts, who serves as Global Ambassador of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, released the following statement today in recognition of World Pneumonia Day, which falls on November 12th:

“This World Pneumonia Day I’m speaking out as a mother about the leading killer of children under the age of 5. Julia Roberts

“Pneumonia kills about 1.4 million young children annually, 99% of whom die in developing countries. That’s one child dying every 20 seconds.

“I was inspired to join the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves because its core mission is saving lives – especially children’s lives. Of the 2 million people killed each year from diseases caused by toxic smoke from dirty stoves and open cooking fires, about half are young children who die from acute lower respiratory infections, most commonly pneumonia.

“Cooking shouldn’t kill, but the sad reality is that it does, and a disproportionate amount of the victims are children at the household hearth with their mother as she cooks.

“I believe this is a particularly cruel injustice. But it is one that can be stopped.

“The deployment of clean cookstoves and fuels can significantly reduce worldwide childhood death from pneumonia.  Combined with our partners’ global efforts to encourage vaccinations and increase basic health and wellness education, the Alliance is playing an important role in reducing pneumonia and other preventable deaths among the world’s most vulnerable people.”

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About the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is an innovative public-private partnership led by the United Nations Foundation to save lives, improve livelihoods, empower women and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The Alliance’s 100 by ‘20 goal calls for 100 million households to adopt clean and efficient cookstoves and fuels by 2020. The Alliance is working with its public, private and non-profit partners to help overcome the market barriers that currently impede the production, deployment and use of clean cookstoves in developing countries. Visit www.cleancookstoves.org for more information.

Media Contact: Sean Bartlett | 202.419.6401 | sbartlett@unfoundation.org

Photo Credit: The Oprah Winfrey Network

 

 

Clean Cookstove Programs: Why the 21st Century is Different from the 20th

November 10, 2011 · 0 comments

Clean Cookstove Programs: Why the 21st Century is Different from the 20th, November 2011.

Kirk Smith

The Indian National Programme for Improved Chulhas, like the other major national programme in China,was initiated in the early 1980s and focused mainly on increasing fuel efficiency to assist with rural welfareand, to a lesser extent, protect forests. Secondary emphasis was on reduction of smoke exposures through use of chimneys. Today, however, there are major changes in our understanding and in world conditions that have completely changed the landscape for biomass stove programmes.

An excerpt:  Rationale

  • We understand much more thoroughly the health impacts of traditional fuel use patterns with hundreds of papers published in the biomedical literature documenting a range of health impacts. Currently, this evidence leads to an estimate of ~4 lakh premature deaths a year in India fromhousehold biomass fuel use.
  • We also know that to obtain significant benefits for health it is necessary to reduce exposures by 80% or more – a factor of two, which is all that seems to be obtainable even with the best chimney stoves, is not enough.
  • We now understand that the international price of LPG, being a petroleum product, will likely continue to increase faster than rural incomes, thus making the transition to modern fuels difficult and, if subsidized by government, increasing expensive. This adds to the attraction of deploying advanced biomass stoves that provide high performance using local renewable resources and relieve the government of the cost of fuel subsidies.
  • It is understood now that poor household combustion of solid fuels is responsible for a significant proportion of outdoor pollution in India, perhaps approaching 50%.
  • It is now recognized that household fuel combustion is a significant player in climate change with high greenhouse impacts per unit energy compared to other human uses of energy.

Technology

  • Given the combined goals of fuel efficiency, health protection, and low climate impacts, it is nowrealized that the only best approach is to move toward high-combustion-efficiency low-emissionsadvanced combustion devices, such as “gasifier” stoves. A chimney adds to the benefits for health,but does not do anything for climate or outdoor air pollution.
  • To achieve reliable high performance, stoves must use either ceramics or good metal alloys,neither of which can be effectively utilized in village manufacture, but must be made incentralized manufacturing facilities with good quality control and other modern mass productiontechniques.

Covariates of fuel saving technologies in urban Ethiopia

November 10, 2011 · 0 comments

World Renewable Energy Congress, 2011

Covariates of fuel saving technologies in urban Ethiopia

Abebe Damte and Steven F Koch

The current government of Ethiopia has devised supply augmented and demand management strategies in order to reduce pressure on forests and the adverse impact of indoor air pollution. This paper tries to examine and understand the determinants of the speed of adoption of one of the demand side strategies, fuel saving technologies (Mirt and Lakech), in urban Ethiopia. The result of the duration analysis shows that income level is a significant factor in the adoption decision of the technologies. This indicates that households will not shift to other better sources of energy as their income increases, as postulated by the energy ladder hypothesis.

Education is positively and significantly related to the speed of adoption of Mirt biomass cook stoves but its effect on adoption of Lakech charcoal stove is insignificant. Electric Mitad (substitute for Mirt injera stove) does not have any effect on the adoption of Mirt biomass cook stoves. However, ownership of Metal charcoal stove is negatively correlated with the adoption of Lakech charcoal stoves. This may suggest that there is a need to reconsider the promotion strategy given the better performance of Lakech charcoal stove over Metal charcoal stove. The implications of other covariates have also been discussed.

Air pollution from household solid fuel combustion in India

November 7, 2011 · 0 comments

Glob Health Action. 2011 October 4. doi: 10.3402/gha.v4i0.5638

Air pollution from household solid fuel combustion in India: an overview of exposure and health related information to inform health research priorities.

Kalpana Balakrishnan, et al.

Environmental and occupational risk factors contribute to nearly 40% of the national burden of disease in India, with air pollution in the indoor and outdoor environment ranking amongst leading risk factors. It is now ecognized that the health burden from air pollution exposures that primarily occur in the rural indoors, from pollutants released during the incomplete combustion of solid fuels in households, may rival or even exceed the burden attributable to urban outdoor exposures.

Few environmental epidemiological efforts have been devoted to this setting, however. We provide an overview of important available information on exposures and health effects related to household solid fuel use in India, with a view to inform health research priorities for household air pollution and facilitate being able to address air pollution within an integrated rural–urban framework in the future.

Indoor air pollution and health of children in biomass fuel-using households of Bangladesh

November 4, 2011 · 0 comments

Environ Health Prev Med. 2011 Nov;16(6):375-83.

Indoor air pollution and health of children in biomass fuel-using households of Bangladesh: comparison between urban and rural areas.

Khalequzzaman M, Kamijima M, Sakai K, Ebara T, Hoque BA, Nakajima T. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.

OBJECTIVES: Indoor air pollutants from biomass combustion pose a risk for respiratory diseases in children. It is plausible that distinct differences in the indoor air quality (IAQ) exist between urban and rural areas in developing countries since the living environment between these two areas are quite different. We have investigated possible differences in IAQ in urban and rural Dhaka, Bangladesh and the association of such differences with the incidence of respiratory and some non-respiratory symptoms in children of families using biomass fuel.

METHODS: Indoor air concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO(2)), dust particles, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and nitrogen dioxide were measured once in the winter and once in the summer of 2008. Health data on 51 urban and 51 rural children under 5 years of age from 51 families in each area
were collected once a week starting in the winter and continuing to the summer of 2008.

RESULTS: Mean concentrations of CO, CO(2,), dust particles, and major VOCs were significantly higher in urban kitchens than in rural ones (p < 0.05). The incidence rate ratio (IRR) suggests that compared to the urban children, the children in the rural area suffered significantly more from respiratory symptoms [IRR 1.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.62-1.64], skin itchiness (IRR 3.3, 95% CI 1.9-5.7), and diarrhea (IRR 1.8, 95% CI 1.4-2.4), while fewer experienced fever (IRR 0.5, 95% CI 0.4-0.6). No difference was observed for other symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: We found lower IAQ in the homes of urban biomass fuel-users compared to rural ones in Bangladesh but could not attribute the occurrence of respiratory symptoms among children to the measured IAQ. Other factors may be involved.

A community randomised controlled trial evaluating a home-based environmental intervention package of improved stoves, solar water disinfection and kitchen sinks in rural Peru

November 4, 2011 · 0 comments

Contemp Clin Trials. 2011 Nov;32(6):864-73.

A community randomised controlled trial evaluating a home-based environmental intervention package of improved stoves, solar water disinfection and kitchen sinks in rural Peru: Rationale, trial design and baseline findings.

Hartinger SM, Lanata CF, Hattendorf J, Gil AI, Verastegui H, Ochoa T, Mäusezahl D.

Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, Petersplatz 1 CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland; Instituto de Investigación Nutricional, Av. La Molina 1885, Lima 12, Peru.

INTRODUCTION: Pneumonia and diarrhoea are leading causes of death in children. There is a need to develop effective interventions.

OBJECTIVE: We present the design and baseline findings of a community-randomised controlled trial in rural Peru to evaluate the health impact of an Integrated Home-based Intervention Package in children aged 6 to 35months.

METHODS: We randomised 51 communities. The intervention was developed through a community-participatory approach prior to the trial. They comprised the construction of improved stoves and kitchen sinks, the promotion of hand washing, and solar drinking water disinfection (SODIS). To reduce the potential impact of non-blinding bias, a psychomotor stimulation intervention was implemented in the control arm. The baseline survey included anthropometric and socio-economic characteristics. In a sub-sample we determined the level of faecal contamination of drinking water, hands and kitchen utensils and the prevalence of diarrhoegenic Escherichia coli in stool specimen.

RESULTS: We enrolled 534 children. At baseline all households used open fires and 77% had access to piped water supplies. E. coli was found in drinking water in 68% and 64% of the intervention and control households. Diarrhoegenic E. coli strains were isolated from 45/139 stool samples. The proportion of stunted children was 54%.

CONCLUSIONS: Randomization resulted in comparable study arms. Recently, several critical reviews raised major concerns on the reliability of open health intervention trials, because of uncertain sustainability and non-blinding bias. In this regard, the presented trial featuring objective outcome measures, a simultaneous intervention in the control communities and a 12-month follow up period will provide valuable evidence.

Impact of reduced maternal exposures to wood smoke from an introduced chimney stove on newborn birth weight in rural Guatemala.

November 4, 2011 · 0 comments

Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Oct;119(10)

Impact of reduced maternal exposures to wood smoke from an introduced chimney stove on newborn birth weight in rural Guatemala.

Thompson LM, Bruce N, Eskenazi B, Diaz A, Pope D, Smith KR.

Family Health Care Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.

Background: A growing body of evidence indicates a relationship between household indoor air pollution from cooking fires and adverse neonatal outcomes, such as low birth weight (LBW), in resource-poor countries.

Objective: We examined the effect of reduced wood smoke exposure in pregnancy on LBW of Guatemalan infants in RESPIRE (Randomized Exposure Study of Pollution Indoors and Respiratory Effects).

Methods: Pregnant women (n = 266) either received a chimney stove (intervention) or continued to cook over an open fire (control). Between October 2002 and December 2004 we weighed 174 eligible infants (69 to mothers who used a chimney stove and 105 to mothers who used an open fire during pregnancy) within 48 hr of birth. Multivariate linear regression and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were used to estimate differences in birth weight and LBW (< 2,500 g) associated with chimney-stove versus open-fire use during pregnancy. Results: Pregnant women using chimney stoves had a 39% reduction in mean exposure to carbon monoxide compared with those using open fires. LBW prevalence was high at 22.4%. On average, infants born to mothers who used a stove weighed 89 g more [95% confidence interval (CI), -27 to 204 g] than infants whose mothers used open fires after adjusting for maternal height, diastolic blood pressure, gravidity, and season of birth. The adjusted OR for LBW was 0.74 (95% CI, 0.33-1.66) among infants of stove users compared with open-fire users. Average birth weight was 296 g higher (95% CI, 109-482 g) in infants born during the cold season (after harvest) than in other infants; this unanticipated finding may reflect the role of maternal nutrition on birth weight in an impoverished region. Conclusions: A chimney stove reduced wood smoke exposures and was associated with reduced LBW occurrence. Although not statistically significant, the estimated effect was consistent with previous studies.

Comprehending household cooking energy choice in rural India

October 31, 2011 · 0 comments

Biomass and Bioenergy, October 2011

Comprehending household cooking energy choice in rural India

Vijay Laxmi Pandey , Aditi Chaubal. Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Gen. A.K. Vaidya Marg, Santosh Nagar, Goregaon (E), Mumbai 400065, India

Energy is essential to attain the quality of life and economic prosperity in a society. In the rural areas of India, cooking dominates the aggregate consumption of energy. This energy demand is mostly met by biomass fuels, which have many associated inherent disadvantages. Hence, it is important to understand the decision making process in rural households regarding the choice of cooking fuels.

For this purpose, household information using the 61st round of National Sample Survey is analyzed for the rural parts of India. The logistic regression model is used to explain the determinants of clean fuel use for cooking purposes.

The study shows that number of educated females between 10 and 50 years of age, average household education index, regular salary, and monthly per capita consumption expenditure have a positive and significant impact on probability of using clean cooking fuels, whereas possessing a Below Poverty Line ration card, belonging to reserved caste categories, family size and size of farm land have a significant negative linkage.

Demonstrating bias and improved inference for stoves’ health benefits

October 27, 2011 · 0 comments

International Journal of Epidemiology 2011;1–9 doi:10.1093/ije/dyr150

Demonstrating bias and improved inference for stoves’ health benefits

Valerie Mueller, Alexander Pfaff, John Peabody, Yaping Liu and Kirk R. Smith

KEY MESSAGES

  • Stove improvements rightfully receive attention for their potential to improve health.
  • Evaluation of their impacts, in light of stoves allocations, has received less attention.
  • We demonstrate that controlling for the differences in health-relevant characteristics between households with improved stoves and those without them affects evaluation.
  • Such results support randomization in stoves allocation, as one way to study impacts. However, with or without that design, they also show real value from data collection

April 2012 conference – Low-cost, electricity generating heat engines for rural areas

October 27, 2011 · 0 comments

International Conference on “Low-cost, electricity generating heat engines for rural areas”

  • On 2-3 April 2012,
  • Nottingham, UK

Call for papers

This conference invites papers that discuss technology, mass manufacturing or the social context associated with the supply of electricity to rural areas using heat engines (Photo-Voltaic implementations are excluded from this call, but other solar technologies are eligible). Papers may be complete implementable solutions or technologies based on heat engines that form part of an electrical generating product in the 10We to 5 kWe range.

Categories

  • Social or other lessons learned from rural electricity supply.
  • Novel technologies; thermo-acoustics, thermo-piles etc.
  • Low cost design techniques, material and methods, high temperature combustion etc.
  • Mass Manufacturing applications and products to aid rural electrification.
  • Financing for rural electrification.

See http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/lmh for more details.

_______________________________________

Paul H. Riley
Score Project Director
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham
NG7 2RD

Web: http://www.score.uk.com

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