Environ Int. 2011 Apr 25.
Evaluation of exposure reduction to indoor air pollution in stove intervention projects in Peru by urinary biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolites.
Li Z, Sjödin A, Romanoff LC, Horton K, Fitzgerald CL, Eppler A, Aguilar-Villalobos M, Naeher LP.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Mail Stop F-53, Atlanta, GA 30341, United States.
Burning biomass fuels such as wood on indoor open-pit stoves is common in developing regions. In such settings, exposure to harmful combustion products such as fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)), carbon monoxide (CO) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is of concern. We aimed to investigate if the replacement of open pit stoves by improved stoves equipped with a chimney would
significantly reduce exposure to PAHs, PM(2.5) and CO.
Two stove projects were evaluated in Peru. Program A was part of the Juntos National Program in which households built their own stoves using materials provided. In Program B, Barrick Gold Corporation hired a company to produce and install the stoves locally. A total of 30 and 27 homes participated in Program A and B, respectively. We collected personal and kitchen air samples, as well as morning urine samples from women tasked with cooking in the households before and after the installation of the improved stoves.
Median levels of PM(2.5) and CO were significantly reduced in kitchen and personal air samples by 47-74% after the installation of the new stoves, while the median reduction of 10 urinary hydroxylate PAH metabolites (OH-PAHs) was 19%-52%. The observed OH-PAH concentration in this study was comparable or higher than the 95th percentile of the general U.S. population, even after the stove intervention, indicating a high overall exposure in this population.
An Australian resident, Adama Kamara, has invented a cooking stove that allows people in developing areas to cook without breathing toxic fumes or contributing to deforestation in search of wood fuels. 
The invention for this low-cost stove may be important news for many trying to cook indoors for families in poorly ventilated rooms. Kamara cites the United Nations, saying some 1.4 million women and children die annually due to inhaling the fumes from wood or other forms of solid biomass that is burned in traditional cook stoves.
Kamara’s invention, the Fire Pot Stove, is an inexpensive box that features grated burner-like holes on the top. Beneath each hole, a metal receptacle holds a natural fiber wick that sits in a pool of relatively clean-burning crude biodiesel, made from waste vegetable oil blended with methanol or ethanol and wood ash. The net result is a relatively clean-burning fuel for cooking purposes.
The stove, which features a long-burning wick, has been featured on ABC’s “The New Inventors.”
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Energy Policy, Apr 2011
Adoption and sustained use of improved cookstoves
Ilse Ruiz-Mercadoa, Omar Masera, Hilda Zamorac and Kirk R. Smith
The adoption and sustained use of improved cookstoves are critical performance parameters of the cooking system that must be monitored just like the rest of the stove technical requirements to ensure the sustainability of their benefits. No stove program can achieve its goals unless people initially accept the stoves and continue using them on a long-term basis. When a new stove is brought into a household, commonly a stacking of stoves and fuels takes place with each device being used for the cooking practices where it fits best.
Therefore, to better understand the adoption process and assess the impacts of introducing a new stove it is necessary to examine the relative advantages of each device in terms of each of the main cooking practices and available fuels. An emerging generation of sensor-based tools is making possible continuous and objective monitoring of the stove adoption process (from acceptance to sustained use or disadoption), and has enabled its scalability. Such monitoring is also needed for transparent verification in carbon projects and for improved dissemination by strategically targeting the users with the highest adoption potential and the substitution of cooking practices with the highest indoor air pollution or greenhouse gas contributions.
Highlights
- Providing access to improved cookstoves is necessary but not sufficient to achieve any of the goals of stove programs. Sustained use is critical to ensure the sustainability of cookstove benefits.
- The introduction of new fuel/devices is a dynamic process with strong interactions with users and the larger socioeconomic and ecological context.
- More than switching to new cookstoves people stack devices and fuels based on the preferred combinations for the main cooking tasks.
- The adoption process is characterized by: the initial acceptance level, time to reach sustained use, level of sustained use and magnitude of seasonal fluctuations.
- New sensor-based tools have made possible the objective monitoring of these parameters to develop strategies for optimizing them.
MVP Cookstove Program Wins Special Achievement Award at 2011 Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) Forum in Lima, Peru
April 12, 2011 – The Millennium Village Project (MVP)’s Household Stove Program was awarded a special achievement award for “Meeting Community Needs” at the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air Forum (PCIA)’s bi-annual Forum in Lima, Peru. The award is “in appreciation and recognition of the MVP’s dedication to meeting community needs through household energy interventions,” and recognized the project’s dedication to tailoring programs by country and region to meet the cooking needs of households.
MVP’s Energy and Income Generation Specialist, Katie Freeman, lead two workshop sessions on “Meeting Community Needs” in the Millennium Village Project’s stove programs.
The US EPA-sponsored PCIA brings together 460 individuals, nonprofits, governments, research organizations and businesses from around the world dedicated to technical and policy solutions to improved cooking in the developing world.
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Indoor Air. 2011 Mar 15. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0668.2011.00715.x.
Indoor air pollution and self-reported diseases – a case study of NCT of Delhi.
Firdaus G, Ahmad A. Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, A.M.U. Aligarh, U.P., India.
People in modern societies often spend 80-90% of their time in indoor environments. It is, therefore, imperative to analyze indoor air quality (IAQ) and its determinants and to consider the contribution of IAQ to possible health outcomes at the household level. Based on empirical data collected from 5949 households from 35 wards of Delhi, it can be summarized that higher proportions of residents live in degraded indoor environmental conditions.
The highest risks to health were attached to use of traditional fuels (64%), lack of a kitchen (59%), exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) (55%), and poor ventilation (55%). Acute respiratory infections (43%) were identified as one of the most prevalent health problems confronted by residents and are strongly associated with use of traditional fuels (adjusted OR 2.7, 95% CI 2.3-3.1). Asthma shows a significant relationship with the use of traditional fuels (adjusted OR 3.8, 95% CI 3.4-4.3), exposure to ETS (adjusted OR 2.5, 95% CI 2.2-2.7), and poor ventilation (adjusted OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.13-1.41). Lung cancer (adjusted OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.38-1.71) and cardiovascular diseases (adjusted OR 2.25, 95% CI2.01-2.53) also show a strong relationship with ETS exposure. More research is needed.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The present study can help to create new insights in understanding the gravity of indoor air quality problems in Delhi and can therefore provide interesting material to social scientists, public health officers, planners, and decision makers. The information can be utilized to help formulate comprehensive policies and planning with a humanistic approach for proper urban indoor environments that will be applicable at all administrative levels, viz. local, national, and international, and will also provide an important background for additional research in this area.
Atmospheric Environment, article in press, 2011
Modeling indoor air pollution from cookstove emissions in developing countries using a Monte Carlo single-box model
Michael Johnson, Nick Lama, Simone Branta, Christen Graya and David Pennise
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. The modeled distributions of indoor PM2.5 concentration estimated that only 4% of homes using fuelwood in a rocket-style cookstove, even under idealized conditions, would meet the WHO Interim-1 annual PM2.5 guideline of 35 μg m−3. According to the model, the PM2.5 emissions that would be required for even 50% of homes to meet this guideline (0.055 g MJ-delivered−1) are lower than those for an advanced gasifier fan stove, while emissions levels similar to liquefied petroleum gas (0.018 g MJ-delivered−1) would be required for 90% of homes to meet the guideline.
Although the predicted distribution of PM concentrations (median = 1320 μg m−3) from inputs for traditional wood stoves was within the range of reported values for India (108–3522 μg m−3), the model likely overestimates IAP concentrations. Direct comparison with simultaneously measured emissions rates and indoor concentrations of CO indicated the model overestimated IAP concentrations resulting from charcoal and kerosene emissions in Kenyan kitchens by 3 and 8 times respectively, although it underestimated the CO concentrations resulting from wood-burning cookstoves in India by approximately one half.
The potential overestimation of IAP concentrations is thought to stem from the model’s assumption that all stove emissions enter the room and are completely mixed. Future versions of the model may be improved by incorporating these factors into the model, as well as more comprehensive and representative data on stove emissions performance, daily cooking energy requirements, and kitchen characteristics.
April 17, 2011 – Desperately poor Haiti is finding a cheap source of fuel in recycling human excrement, a move that could help put a dent in a cholera epidemic and slow the country’s pervasive deforestation.
The “biodigester“, which converts organic waste to biogas and a liquid fertilizer rich in nutrients, requires little infrastructure: toilets linked to a sealed, brick-lined well connected to a basin. Seventy of these devices are up and running, while another 70 are in the works.
Deprived of air, the bacteria thriving in human excrement eat 85 percent of the refuse while producing methane gas, explained Martin Wartchow, pointing his lighter above a small tube hanging out of the rank. A powerful flame was immediately set ablaze.
“The remaining 15 percent of organic waste is thrown out with the excess water in a green area where they biodegrade,” continued the hydrologist, who is working with the Brazilian nongovernmental group Viva Rio in Port-au-Prince.
“Not a single chemical product is used and at the end of the line, the water we collect is completely clean.”
The engineer plunged his hand in a basin filled with filtered, clear and, incredibly, odorless liquid. “We even raise fish here.”
Recently completed at a Viva Rio center that hosts over 600 young Haitians each day, the installation is due to be linked to a cafeteria under construction to replace wood coals.
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Indoor Air. 2011 Apr;21(2):165-76.
Hypertension with elevated levels of oxidized low-density lipoprotein and anticardiolipin antibody in the circulation of premenopausal Indian women chronically exposed to biomass smoke during cooking.
Dutta A, et al. Department of Experimental Hematology, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, Kolkata, India.
This study aims to investigate whether indoor air pollution (IAP) from biomass fuel use was associated with hypertension, platelet hyperactivity, and elevated levels of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) and anticardiolipin antibody (aCL). We enrolled 244 biomass fuel-using (median age 34 year) and 236 age-matched control women who cooked with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure oxLDL in plasma and aCL in serum, flow cytometry for P-selectin expression on platelet and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation by leukocytes, aggregometry for platelet aggregation, spectrophotometry for superoxide dismutase (SOD) in erythrocytes, and laser photometer for particulate matter <10 and 2.5 μm in diameter (PM(10) and PM(2.5,) respectively) in cooking areas. Biomass users had three times more particulate pollution in kitchen, had higher prevalence of hypertension (29.5 vs. 11.0% in control, P < 0.05), elevated oxLDL (170.6 vs. 45.9 U/l; P < 0.001), platelet P-selectin expression (9.1% vs. 2.4%), platelet aggregation (23.2 vs. 15.9 Ohm), raised aCL IgG (28.7% vs. 2.1%), IgM (8.6% of vs. 0.4%), and ROS (44%) but depleted (13%) SOD. After controlling potential confounders, the changes were positively associated with PM(10) and PM(2.5) in indoor air, suggesting a positive association between IAP and increased cardiovascular risk.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The study showing high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among poor, underprivileged women in their reproductive ages in rural India is important from public health perspectives. It may motivate the government and the regulatory agencies of the country to take a serious note of the indoor air pollution (IAP) from biomass fuel use as it threatens the health of millions of women, children, and the elderly who mostly stay indoor. We hope the findings will strengthen the demand for setting up a standard for indoor air quality in the country in the line of national ambient air quality standard. The findings may also inspire the authorities to take measures for the reduction in IAP by improving housing, kitchen ventilation, and cook stoves. Moreover, the parameters used in this study can be utilized for large, population-based studies to identify women at a higher risk of developing CVD so that medical intervention can be taken at the formative stage of a disease.
Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Mar 15;45(6):2428-34.
Evaluation of mass and surface area concentration of particle emissions and development of emissions indices for cookstoves in rural India.
Sahu M, et al. Aerosol and Air Quality Research Laboratory, Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Campus Box 1180 Washington University in St. Louis , St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
Mass-based dose parameters (for example, PM(2.5)) are most often used to characterize cookstove particulate matter emissions. Particle surface area deposition in the tracheobronchial (TB) and alveolar (A) regions of the human lung is also an important metric with respect to health effects, though very little research has investigated this dose parameter for cookstove emissions. Field sampling of cookstove emissions was performed in two regions of rural India, wherein PM(2.5), particulate surface area concentration in both TB and A regions, and carbon monoxide (CO) were measured in 120 households and two roadside restaurants.
Novel indices were developed and used to compare the emissions and efficiency of several types of household and commercial cookstoves, as well as to compare mass-based (PM(2.5)) and surface area-based measurements of particle concentration. The correlation between PM(2.5) and surface area concentration was low to moderate: Pearson’s correlation coefficient (R) for PM(2.5) vs surface area concentration in TB region is 0.38 and for PM(2.5) vs surface area concentration in A region is 0.47, indicating that PM(2.5) is not a sufficient proxy for particle surface area concentration. The indices will also help communicate results of cookstove studies to decision makers more easily.
By Rob Goodier
A device rigged with a loudspeaker and other cheap components can clean up a dirty, woodburning cookstove and convert it into a power generator. It’s a small thermoacoustic generator that attaches to the stove to convert heat into sound waves and then into electricity. The concept is rooted in NASA space probe propulsion technology, but it is affordable enough for use in developing regions.
Paul Montgomery, a recent mechanical engineering graduate of Pennsylvania State University, developed a working prototype of the device last year. As he explains, it uses the stove’s leftover heat to produce a high-amplitude sound wave within a resonator. It then channels the wave through a loudspeaker operating in reverse to generate electricity. The advantages are its low cost—projected at about $25, it has no moving parts other than the loudspeaker, and it could be more efficient than a thermoelectric generator.
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