Rema Hanna – Can improved stoves improve health?

March 17, 2011 · 0 comments

Indoor air pollution (IAP) is a serious health threat.  Across India, 72.3 per cent of households use the traditional fuels of firewood, crop residue, or cow-dung cake (2001 Census). In rural areas, the reliance on traditional fuels is much higher, with 90 per cent of households using traditional fuels. The World Health Organization claims that IAP is the second largest environmental cause of childhood mortality in lower-income countries, after unsafe water.

In response, the government and many NGOs have distributed “improved” or “clean” stoves that aim to reduce IAP concentrations. For example, the Indian National Programme on Improved Chulhas (NPIC) has distributed over 32 millions improved stoves (as of 2000). The improved stoves can take a variety of forms. They can be made from concrete or mud (concrete lasts longer, but mud is easier to obtain and cheaper, especially in rural areas). Typically, they include a chimney that directs the smoke out of the room. In addition, these stoves usually enclose the cooking flame, which leads to increased efficiency and may potentially reduce wood use.

Despite the popularity of these programs, there is still considerable debate about the benefits of these improved stoves. First do the stoves actually reduce IAP? In the laboratory, we know that the stoves reduce IAP. However, misuse — filling the stoves with too much fuel, not cleaning the chimney properly, not repairing cracks in the stove — may mitigate these gains.

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Emission of Oxygenated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

March 14, 2011 · 0 comments

Environ Sci Technol. 2011 Mar 4.

Emission of Oxygenated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from Indoor Solid Fuel Combustion.

Shen G, et al. Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.

Indoor solid fuel combustion is a dominant source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and oxygenated PAHs (OPAHs) and the latter are believed to be more toxic than the former. However, there is limited quantitative information on the emissions of OPAHs from solid fuel combustion. In this study, emission factors of OPAHs (EF(OPAH)) for nine commonly used crop residues and five coals burnt in typical residential stoves widely used in rural China were measured under simulated kitchen conditions.

The total EF(OPAH) ranged from 2.8 ± 0.2 to 8.1 ± 2.2 mg/kg for tested crop residues and from 0.043 to 71 mg/kg for various coals and 9-fluorenone was the most abundant specie. The EF(OPAH) for indoor crop residue burning were 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than those from open burning, and they were affected by fuel properties and combustion conditions, like moisture and combustion efficiency. For both crop residues and coals, significantly positive correlations were found between EFs for the individual OPAHs and the parent PAHs. An oxygenation rate, R(o), was defined as the ratio of the EFs between the oxygenated and parent PAH species to describe the formation potential of OPAHs.

For the studied OPAH/PAH pairs, mean R(o) values were 0.16-0.89 for crop residues and 0.03-0.25 for coals. R(o) for crop residues burned in the cooking stove were much higher than those for open burning and much lower than those in ambient air, indicating the influence of secondary formation of OPAH and loss of PAHs. In comparison with parent PAHs, OPAHs showed a higher tendency to be associated with particulate matter (PM), especially fine PM, and the dominate size ranges were 0.7-2.1 μm for crop residues and high caking coals and <0.7 μm for the tested low caking briquettes.

PMID: 21375317 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

Development of emissions indices for cookstoves in rural India

March 14, 2011 · 0 comments

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.

Energy-saving stoves help protect Nairobi forest

March 14, 2011 · 1 comment

NAIROBI (AlertNet) – Jane Wambui Njuguna, a 60-year-old grandmother from Ndaire village on the edge of Nairobi’s Ngong forest, is happy with her new cooking stove. It makes the wood she collects go much further, saving her time and effort.

A digestor at Nairobi's Nyongara slaughter house turns waste into biogas. ALERTNET/David Njagi

It’s also helping slow deforestation in the 600-hectare (1,480-acre) forest reserve that serves as a green belt for the capital and lies just 6 km (4 miles) from the city centre.

Illegal wood harvesting has stripped the Ngong Forest Sanctuary of nearly half its indigenous tree cover, and civil society groups fear politicians are trying to sell off some of its land for development.

But the private charitable trust that manages the city forest hopes a portable cylindrical cooking vessel could boost efforts to preserve the forest.

Last year the Appropriate Wood and Solar Energy Network (AWSEN), a renewable energy community group Wambui has joined, received energy-saving stoves from India-based Project Surya.

Wambui says the stoves are so efficient that one bundle of firewood now lasts three weeks. She needs only a fistful of chopped wood to cook a meal, boil water and do a couple of other tasks.

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USAID Deputy Administrator highlights cookstove efforts

March 14, 2011 · 0 comments

Donald Steinberg is the deputy administrator for USAID. He previously served  as deputy president of the International Crisis Group. He is also a former  member of the U.N. Civil Society Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security, a  former board member of the Women’s Refugee Commission, and also previously  served on the advisory panel to the executive director of the U.N. Development  Fund for Women. He has written extensively on issues related to women in  conflict and gender empowerment, and has been a strong advocate for gender issues throughout his career. 

An excerpt from the Frontlines interview:

FL: Can you point to a specific example of where USAID is innovating in its approach to women-centered policies?

DS: One practical example is the introduction of new fuel-efficient cooking equipment and methods. Especially in Africa, we are relying on women to move away from traditional dependence on charcoal, which has a devastating impact on the environment through deforestation, causes severe respiratory problems, and draws labor away from more productive uses. Solar cookers or other new forms of food preparation have the potential to encourage fundamental change in these societies and economies.

Complete interview

Wood smoke harmful to health and DNA

March 14, 2011 · 0 comments

Excerpts from a March 14, 2011 newspaper article

But new research is raising concerns about the toxic substances in smoke.

Tiny airborne specks known as particulate matter produced by wood-burning stoves appear to be especially harmful to human health. Small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs, they contain high levels of carcinogenic chemicals. They’re capable of damaging DNA and activating genes much like car exhaust and tobacco smoke, according to a new study in Denmark. Another new study, conducted in Canada, found that infants and toddlers were significantly more likely to get ear infections if they lived in an area with a lot of wood stoves and fireplaces.

Because wood is a natural material and has been an integral part of human existence for so long, many view it as a benign, cheap and renewable energy alternative. But wood smoke can exacerbate asthma symptoms, and is especially harmful to children and older people. The emissions also have been linked to respiratory disease, atherosclerosis and other coronary problems, and early deaths among people with cardiovascular or lung disease.

“We know there’s a lot of bad stuff released when wood is burned,” said Dr. John Balmes, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and professor of environmental science at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “It’s actually not that far away from tobacco smoke and smoke from fossil fuel combustion engines. They’re in the same ballpark.”

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Picturing low-carbon development: Methane cook stoves in rural India

March 14, 2011 · 1 comment

Cook stoves powered by methane generate far less soot than those fueled by wood.

That’s because this resident of rural India is cooking on a two-burner stove powered by methane rather than wood. The methane is produced by a small-scale “digester” located just outside her home. (In the digester, manure from the family’s livestock, stabled nearby, is broken down by bacteria and converted to methane.)

And because she is cooking with methane, not only are her walls cleaner – so are her lungs, and those of her children and husband.

At least as importantly, she no longer needs to spend three to four hours every day – seven days a week, 365 days a year – gathering wood.

That means that instead of her having to collect firewood, build a fire and get it hot enough to cook, she can make the family’s breakfast with the flick of a switch on the methane stove. This time savings in the morning allows her children to get to school as classes begin, rather than several hours into the school day.

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Indoor Coal Use and Early Childhood Growth

March 8, 2011 · 0 comments

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2011 Feb 7.

Indoor Coal Use and Early Childhood Growth.

Ghosh R, Amirian E, Dostal M, Sram RJ, Hertz-Picciotto I.

University of California, Davis (Drs Ghosh and Hertz-Picciotto); Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver (Dr Amirian); and Institute of Experimental Medicine,

Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic (Drs Dostal and Sram).

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether indoor coal combustion for heating, which releases pollutants into the air, affects early childhood growth.

DESIGN: A prospective longitudinal study, with growth measurements extracted from medical records of the children’s well-child care visits at age 36 months. Data were compiled from self-administered questionnaires and medical records, both completed at 2 time points: delivery and follow-up.

SETTING: Teplice and Prachatice districts in the Czech Republic. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1133 children followed from birth to age 36 months. Main Exposure  Maternally reported use of coal for heating. Main Outcome Measure  The z score for height for age and sex at age 36 months.

RESULTS: Adjusted for covariates, indoor coal use was significantly associated with a lower z score for height for age and sex at age 36 months (zscore = -0.37; 95% confidence interval, -0.60 to -0.14). This finding translates into a reduction in height of about 1.34 cm (95% confidence interval, 0.51 to 2.16) for boys and 1.30 cm (95% confidence interval, 0.50 to 2.10) for girls raised in homes that used coal. The association between coal use and height was modified by postnatal cigarette smoke exposure.

CONCLUSIONS: Pollution from indoor coal use may impair early childhood skeletal growth to age 36 months. Because a significant proportion of the world population still uses coal indoors, the finding has public health consequences.

India – Innovative kersoene purchase plan

March 8, 2011 · 0 comments

 Fulfilling The Promise – Kirit S Parikh, The writer is chairman, Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe).

March 9, 2011

The announcement in the budget of providing fertiliser and fuel subsides through cash transfer, if successfully implemented, can effectively reach the poor and reduce the burden of subsidies. There are, however, sceptics who question if this can be effectively implemented. The old-age pension and widows’ pension schemes that involve cash transfer are, according to some, the least effective schemes in reaching the intended beneficiaries. Also, questions are raised whether cash transfer can work when many poor are illiterate and do not have bank accounts. It is also suggested that cash would be easier to siphon off. These are misplaced concerns.

Often when a new policy or measure is suggested, people point out all that can go wrong and say it is not perfect. However, the question that should be asked is whether it is substantially better than present policy or not.

So, let’s look at how the present policy performs. A number of studies have shown that between one third to half of kerosene supplied through the public distribution system (PDS) gets diverted to adulterate diesel and does not reach the intended persons. Also, as per the National Sample Survey data for 2004-05, among rural households that get any kerosene from PDS, the bottom 90% of the households get around three litres per household per month. Some 25% of the rural households in all decile groups do not get any kerosene at all. Thus, 25% of the poor are excluded and nearly 75% of the rich are included. If we consider that 50% are poor, then only half of the 66% kerosene distributed through PDS reaches the poor. Thus, the poor today get only 33% of the subsidy expenditure by the government.

If all the poor households were to get kerosene – five litres instead of three – it would require around 75% of the kerosene that is currently supplied to the PDS system. The subsidy burden of kerosene would come down by 25%.

An effective targeting scheme, which is the key to this, can be based on Aadhaar, the Unique ID Card. Aadhaar is a smart card that carries finger prints and iris scan data. A person with the card can go to a shop and put his fingers on a small device that transmits the data to the Aadhaar computer system, which confirms within five seconds if the person is the same one as the card holder. It is thus not possible for anyone else to claim the entitlement associated with the card. The cards can be charged with their entitlement.

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USAID solicitation – Behavior Change Interventions and Improved Cookstoves

March 4, 2011 · 0 comments

USAID – Implementation Research on: BEHAVIOR CHANGE INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE THE ACQUISITION AND CORRECT USE OF IMPROVED COOKSTOVES

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With the overall goal of generating widespread improvements in indoorair quality in developing countries with high burdens of relatedmortality (mainly child mortality from pneumonia but also deaths ofwomen from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the purposeof this solicitation is to fund implementation research that willdevelop, test and evaluate state-of-the art behavior changeinterventions for the acquisition and/or appropriate use of improvedcookstoves.

Although behavior change is the focus of this solicitation, it isrecognized that stove technologies and/or fuels play a critical roleto improvements in indoor air quality. Therefore, the applicationshould clearly describe how the behavioral research relates to theenabling products being used in the study areas, such as clean andefficient stoves and fuels.

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