KATHMANDU, Aug 9, 2011 (IPS) – When Binita Lamichhane got married she was troubled by her husband’s bloodshot eyes. “What happened to your eyes?” the 18-year-old bride asked. “Smoke,” came the answer.
Nakul Lamichhane, the young groom, was the son of landless agricultural labourers who had to cook the family meals while his parents were away tilling others’ fields.
The cooking stove – an open fire on three bricks packed with a layer of mud – filled the single-room house with smoke that blackened everything and caused the family members respiratory ailments.
“It’s a common problem in Nepal’s villages,” says Binita, now 29 and the mother of two. “My mother had severe asthma but we never realised it was due to the smoke. There were also frequent deaths due to asphyxiation.”
In Nagarkot, a picturesque tourist destination in central Nepal’s Bhaktapur district where Binita lives, a neighbour died two months ago due to her smoking stove, she says.
The human misery apart, greenhouse gases (GhGs) and black carbon produced by inefficient combustion of wood and biomass have been identified as prime agents in global warming that is said to cause climate change.
A report published this year by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank – ‘Household Cookstoves, Environment, Health, And Climate Change: A new look at an old problem’ – says developing countries annually burn about 730 million tonnes of biomass fuel for household use, releasing several GhGs.
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Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development, Vol. 5, Iss. 1 (2011)
Sustaining Culture with Sustainable Stoves: The Role of Tradition in Providing Clean-Burning Stoves to Developing Countries
Full-text: http://journals.cdrs.columbia.edu/consilience/index.php/consilience/article/view/157/67
Britta Victor, Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
The focus of climate change mitigation is on greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, but there is another form of carbon that contributes greatly to climate change and that, if cleaned up, seems to be a quick and easy way to slow climate change. This is black carbon, or soot, and the majority of the world’s black carbon comes from the basic cooking stoves of poor people in developing countries.
These same stoves also pose significant health risks to their users, and many researchers and philanthropists are working to put cleaner stoves in their kitchens. This quick fix is not so easy, though. In the quest for the perfect stove, a key detail is left out: the cooks do not want to give up their old stoves. This study juxtaposes the research of stove engineers with ethnographies of rural communities, writings on women’s rights, and theories of imperialism, to explore the complex cultural obstacles to the success of clean stove programs in developing countries.
ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE 2011;2(5):WMC001938
Lung Function Among Improved and Traditional Cooking Stove Users
Link to full-text and author emails
Dr. Sunil Kumar Joshi , Mr. Ashish Singh , Mr. Bhushan Tuladhar
Corresponding Author: Mr. Ashish Singh, Environment and Public Health Organization, – Nepal
Introduction: Indoor air pollution is a major cause of respiratory problems in developing countries. Cooking stoves in the kitchen could be an important factor. This study compares the effect of the traditional cooking stove and the improved cooking stove on the respiratory health of women.
Methods: A comparative evaluation was done among traditional cooking stove (TCS) users and improved cooking stove (ICS) users. Lung function parameters such as FEV1, FVS, PEF were measured using a portable spirometer. The findings were correlated with the type of cooking stove used.
Results: Among 123 participants, 67(54.5 %) were ICS users and 56 (45.5 %) were TCS users. The mean age of TCS users was 34.7 years and that of ICS users was 32.9 years. Eleven (19.5%) TCS users and seven (12.4%) ICS users had abnormal lung function. The mean FVC was 3.25±0.46 litres for ICS users and 3.24±0.51 liters for TCS users. Likewise, FEV1 was 2.69±0.36 litres for ICS users compared to 2.61±0.46 liters for TCS users. FEV1/FVC was 0.83±0.06 for ICS users compared to 0.80±0.06 for TCS users. Overall, there was no significant difference between the two groups.
Conclusions: There was no substantial difference in the lung function of ICS and TCS users.
Atmospheric Environment, Volume 45, Issue 19, June 2011, Pages 3237-3243
Modeling indoor air pollution from cookstove emissions in developing countries using a Monte Carlo single-box model
Michael Johnsona, , , Nick Lama, b, Simone Branta, Christen Graya and David Pennisea
a Berkeley Air Monitoring Group, 2124 Kittredge St #57, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
b Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, 725 University Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
A simple Monte Carlo single-box model is presented as a first approach toward examining the relationship between emissions of pollutants from fuel/cookstove combinations and the resulting indoor air pollution (IAP) concentrations. The model combines stove emission rates with expected distributions of kitchen volumes and air exchange rates in the developing country context to produce a distribution of IAP concentration estimates. The resulting distribution can be used to predict the likelihood that IAP concentrations will meet air quality guidelines, including those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO). The model can also be used in reverse to estimate the probability that specific emission factors will result in meeting air quality guidelines.
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July 20, 2011 – In September 2010, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a 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 homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves and fuels by 2020.
At an event at the Working Women’s Forum in Chennai, India, Secretary Clinton today announced that two major Indian industrial organizations – the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) – have agreed to join the Alliance. Both will be invaluable partners in building successful and sustainable cookstove businesses and consumer financing options across India. CII has committed to link community efforts to its extensive industry network, help commercialize promising cooking technologies, and help integrate clean cookstoves into its other members’ projects. FICCI will support small and medium-sized local cookstove enterprises, develop microfinance channels to support the purchase of cookstoves, develop women’s employment options, and support Alliance interaction with the Indian government.
The Issue: Nearly half of the world’s population – about 3 billion people – cooks their food each day on polluting, inefficient stoves. Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves and open fires is the fifth worst health risk factor in poor countries and leads to nearly 2 million premature deaths of mostly women and young children each year (more than twice the mortality from malaria). Cookstoves also increase pressures on local natural resources (e.g., forests, habitat) and contribute to climate change at the regional and global level.
In India, approximately 80 percent of rural homes and 20 percent of urban homes rely on solid fuels like wood or dung for cooking. As a result, more than 100 million homes suffer unsafe exposures to cookstove smoke. According to World Health Organization estimates, this exposure causes nearly 500,000 women and children in India to die prematurely each year. Cookstoves account for about 3.5 percent of India’s national burden of disease. Additionally, cookstoves represent about half of India’s black carbon inventory.
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Inflammation. 2011 Jul 19.
Neutrophilic Inflammatory Response and Oxidative Stress in Premenopausal Women Chronically Exposed to Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass Burning.
Banerjee A, Mondal NK, Das D, Ray MR. Department of Experimental Hematology, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, 37, S. P. Mukherjee Road, Kolkata, 700 026, India.
The possibility of inflammation and neutrophil activation in response to indoor air pollution (IAP) from biomass fuel use has been investigated. For this, 142 premenopausal, never-smoking women (median age, 34 years) who cook exclusively with biomass (wood, dung, crop wastes) and 126 age-matched control women who cook with cleaner fuel liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) were enrolled. The neutrophil count in blood and sputum was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in biomass users than the control group. Flow cytometric analysis revealed marked increase in the surface expression of CD35 (complement receptor-1), CD16 (F(C)γ receptor III), and β(2) Mac-1 integrin (CD11b/CD18) on circulating neutrophils of biomass users.
Besides, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay showed that they had 72%, 67%, and 54% higher plasma levels of the proinflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, and interleukin-12, respectively, and doubled neutrophil chemoattractant interleukin-8. Immunocytochemical study revealed significantly higher percentage of airway neutrophils expressing inducible nitric oxide synthase, while the serum level of nitric oxide was doubled in women who cooked with biomass. Spectrophotometric analysis documented higher myeloperoxidase activity in circulating neutrophils of biomass users, suggesting neutrophil activation.
Flow cytometry showed excess generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by leukocytes of biomass-using women, whereas their erythrocytes contained a depleted level of antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD).Indoor air of biomass-using households had two to four times more particulate matter with diameters of <10 μm (PM(10)) and <2.5 μm (PM(2.5)) as measured by real-time laser photometer. After controlling potential confounders, rise in proinflammatory mediators among biomass users were positively associated with PM(10) and PM(2.5) in indoor air, suggesting a close relationship between IAP and neutrophil activation. Besides, the levels of neutrophil activation and inflammation markers were positively associated with generation of ROS and negatively with SOD, indicating a role of oxidative stress in mediating neutrophilic inflammatory response following chronic inhalation of biomass smoke.
CREDIT: Juma Dyegula, BALANCED Project
Family Planning + Fuel-Efficient Cook Stoves = Better Health for Tanzania, IN: Frontlines, June/July 2011.
Rukia Seif spends much of her day cooking for her husband and three girls in her rural Tanzanian home next to the Saadani National Park, an area rich in biodiversity near the Indian Ocean shores. The chore is more enjoyable now that she uses a fuel-efficient stove that produces less smoke.
“I can even wear my best clothes and put on some lip shine when I use this stove, because it does not foul up the air,” Seif explains with a laugh.
Costing less than $2 to build, the mud stove uses less fuel than earlier models, and thus helps sustain forests for future generations. The older models’ appetite for fuel was helping destroy the neighboring national park, where community members cut wood for fuel even though it is not allowed. Reducing the demand for wood as fuel also reduces greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.
Fuel-efficient stoves are better for the environment and for her family’s health, and Seif wants others to know about it. As part of the USAID-funded BALANCED (Building Actors and Leaders for Advancing Community Excellence in Development) Project, she received training and now works as a population, health, environment (PHE) peer educator teaching fellow community members about simple things they can do to improve their lives.
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African Journal of Health Sciences Vol. 18, No. 1-2, January – June 2011
Household fuel use and acute respiratory infections among younger children: an exposure assessment in Shebedino Wereda, Southern Ethiopia
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Biruck Desalegn, Hammed Suleiman
Background: the health impacts of exposure to indoor air pollution have yet to become a central focus of research, development aid and policy-making.
Objective: To investigate the effect of household fuel use on acute respiratory infection in younger children at Shebedino Wereda.
Study method: The study design was cross-sectional, which employed an exposure assessment approach, collecting detailed primary data on several household-level exposure indicators (fuel type, stove type, kitchen type, housing type, ventilation, etc.) through the administration of a questionnaire in 405 households. Data were collected during January to February 2006.
Result: The response rate for the sampled households was 100%. ARI prevalence of the study area (21%) was found to be lower as compared to the national figure in 2000 (24%). The study approach appears to demonstrate a relatively consistent association between child handling practice while cooking and childhood ARI.
Conclusion: The existing environmental and socioeconomic factor in the study area has a considerable potential to contribute for environmental threats to the health of children. An obvious implication is that educating the public about the adverse effects of cooking smoke on child health and on good child handling practice through community participation is essential.
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and Energy – Grand Challenge Coordinator (USAID/EGAT)
Synopsis: The Fellow will support USAID program development, implementation and coordination of household energy and health initiatives in developing countries. Programmatic and administrative duties will help to ensure quality work addressing the gender, technology, health, environmental, behavioral and socioeconomic implications of household energy use. Domestic and foreign travel for this position is estimated to be between 5% – 20%.
Environmental Health Perspectives, July 2011
Indoor Air Pollution and Blood Pressure in Adult Women Living in Rural China
Link to full-text
Jill Baumgartner, et al.
Background: Almost half the world’s population uses coal and biomass fuels for domestic energy. Limited evidence suggests that exposure to air pollutants from indoor biomass combustion may be associated with elevated blood pressure. Our aim was to assess the relationship between air pollution exposure from indoor biomass combustion and blood pressure in women in rural China.
Methods: We measured 24-hr personal integrated gravimetric exposure to fine particles less than 2.5 microns in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) and systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in the winter and summer among 280 women ≥25 years old living in rural households using biomass fuels in Yunnan, China. We investigated the association between PM2.5 exposure and SBP and DBP using mixed-effects models with random intercepts to account for correlation among repeated measures.
Results: Personal average 24-hr exposure to PM2.5 ranged from 22 to 634 µg/m3 in winter and 9 to 492 µg/m3 in summer. A one log-µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure was associated with 2.2 mmHg (95% CI: 0.8, 3.7; p=0.003) higher SBP and 0.5 mmHg (95% CI: -0.4, 1.3; p=0.31) higher DBP among all women; estimated effects varied by age group. Among women >50 years old, a one log-µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure was associated with 4.1 mmHg (95% CI: 1.5, 6.6; p=0.002) higher SBP and 1.8 mmHg (95% CI: 0.4, 3.2; p=0.01) higher DBP. PM2.5 exposure was positively associated with SBP among younger women, but the association was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: PM2.5 exposure from biomass combustion may be a risk factor for elevated blood pressure, and hence for cardiovascular events. Our findings should be corroborated in longitudinal studies.
