Global burden of disease as a result of indoor air pollution in China

February 10, 2011 · 0 comments

Sci Total Environ. 2011 Jan 31.
 
Global burden of disease as a result of indoor air pollution in Shaanxi, Hubei and Zhejiang, China.
 
Mestl HE, Edwards R. CICERO Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, PO Box 1129 Blindern, N-0318 Oslo, Norway.
 
Indoor air pollution in developing countries is a major global health problem, yet estimates of the global burden of disease vary widely and are associated with large uncertainty. The World Health Organization uses the fuel based approach to estimate 1.6million premature deaths globally each year associated with exposure  to indoor air pollution, of which 420000 are in China.

The fuel based approach uses a ventilation factor to account for differences in indoor air concentrations and exposures in different parts of the world based on regional differences in stove technology. In China this approach assumes that flues eliminate the majority of indoor air pollution, with a ventilation factor of 0.25. To account for historic exposure leading to current disease patterns the ventilation factor  was adjusted to 0.5 for adult health endpoints.

Measurements in three Chinese provinces, Shaanxi, Hubei and Zhejiang, however, show that high PM(4) concentrations are present in kitchens and living rooms even with stoves with flues as a result of multiple stove and flue use. Comparison of Indian and Chinese indoor air concentrations suggests more appropriate ventilation factors in the range 0.76-1.0 for women and children, and 1.0 for men. Premature mortality in the three provinces using these estimates would be closer to 60600, rather than current estimates of 46000.

With the addition of cardiovascular diseases these estimates would increase by 92000. Pollutant based estimates using measured indoor air concentrations and combined with dose-response estimates would imply a burden of disease of 157800 premature deaths including cardiovascular diseases, a tripling of current estimates.

Indoor Coal Use and Early Childhood Growth

February 10, 2011 · 1 comment

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 (z score = -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,

Emissions of PAHs from Indoor Crop Residue Burning in a Rural Stove

February 2, 2011 · 0 comments

Emissions of PAHs from Indoor Crop Residue Burning in a Typical Rural Stove: Emission Factors, Size Distributions, and Gas−Particle Partitioning

Guofeng Shen†, Wei Wang†, Yifeng Yang†, Junnan Ding†, Miao Xue†, Yujia Min†, Chen Zhu†, Huizhong Shen†, Wei Li†, Bin Wang†, Rong Wang†, Xilong Wang†, Shu Tao*†, and Armistead G. Russell‡
 
† Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
‡ School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
 
Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/es102151w,  January 19, 2011

e-mail: taos@urban.pku.edu.cn.

Indoor combustion of crop residues for cooking or heating is one of the most important emission sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in developing countries. However, data on PAH emission factors (EFs) for burning crop residues indoor, particularly those measured in the field, were scarce, leading to large uncertainties in the emission inventories. In this study, EFs of PAHs for nine commonly used crop residues burned in a typical Chinese rural cooking stove were measured in a simulated kitchen.

The measured EFs of total PAHs averaged at 63 ± 37 mg/kg, ranging from 27 to 142 mg/kg, which were higher than those measured in chamber experiments, implying that the laboratory experiment-based emission and risk assessment should be carefully reviewed.

EFs of gaseous and particulate phase PAHs were 27 ± 13 and 35 ± 23 mg/kg, respectively. Composition profiles and isomer ratios of emitted PAHs were characterized. Stepwise regressions found that modified combustion efficiency and fuel moisture were the most important factors affecting the emissions.

There was 80 ± 6% of PAHs associated with PM2.5, and the mass percentage of PAHs in fine particles increased as the molecular weight increased. For freshly emitted PAHs, absorption into organic carbon, rather than adsorption, dominated the gas−particle partitioning.

Indoor smoke kills 54,000 Afghans a year

January 26, 2011 · 1 comment

 Reuters, January 14, 2011
 
 Afghan Khan Mohammad’s once-long henna-stained beard is burned up to his chin, and his face is swollen and raw after a gas lamp exploded because it was placed too close to the family’s wood-burning stove.

As temperatures drop well below freezing during the country’s harsh winter, bombs and bullets from a near-decade long war against a Taliban-led insurgency are not the only threat -just trying to light a home and stay warm can be deadly.

“We were using gas for a lamp and cooking food on the bukhari (stove), and the gas bottle was too close,” Mohammad said of the explosion, which also hurt his 11-year old son.

But aside from the threat of burns, the main problem posed by heating and cooking is the smoke, which the World Health Organization said kills 54,000 Afghans a year. Most of those killed are children younger than 5, it said.

By contrast, 2,412 civilians were killed by conflict-related violence and 3,803 wounded in the first 10 months of 2010, the United Nations said.

More than 95 per cent of Afghanistan’s 30 million people burn solid fuels, such as wood and coal, in their homes, said the WHO, making it one of the 10 countries most affected by indoor pollution.

Afghans typically use a wood-burning bukhari, a drum-shaped stove made of thin metal, or a sandali, a pit of burning coal under a table covered by a blanket, which people put their feet under.

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Field testing and survey evaluation of household biomass cookstoves

November 30, 2010 · 0 comments

Energy for Sustainable Development, Volume 14, Issue 3, September 2010, Pages 172-185

Field testing and survey evaluation of household biomass cookstoves in rural sub-Saharan Africa

Download Full-text (pdf)

Edwin Adkinsb, Erika Tylera, Jin Wangb, David Siriric and Vijay Modib

This paper presents the results of two studies conducted to evaluate the performance and usability of household biomass cookstoves under field conditions in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Cooking tests and qualitative surveys compared improved, manufactured stove models based on the ‘rocket’ design with the traditional three-stone fire. All tests and interviews took place in household kitchens in two village areas in Western Uganda and Western Tanzania.

The performance parameters evaluated in cooking tests were specific fuelwood consumption and cooking time. Surveying of household cooks gathered information about prevailing cooking practices, stove preference and usability, and willingness to pay for novel stove types. Test results showed that the manufactured stoves, in general, yield a substantial reduction in specific fuelwood consumption relative to the three-stone fire, with results varying by stove type and type of food cooked.

Survey data suggests that while cooks recognize fuelwood savings as an important benefit, overall stove preference depends upon a combination of this and other factors, including cooking time, stove size and ease of use. These findings highlight the importance of testing multiple cookstoves for preparation of a variety of food items, as well as combined use of quantitative stove tests in combination with qualitative surveys in efforts to determine suitability of cookstoves for household use in a given community.

Retired 3M engineers create a solar water pasteurizer

November 30, 2010 · 0 comments

From the Solar Cooker Wiki Archive, Nov 2010 – Retired 3M engineers create a solar water pasteurizer for use in Third World countries. Inspired by the potential capacity for heat transfer they saw in plastic political signs, Bob Nepper and Bill Stevenson, long time members of the Solar Oven Society in Minnesota, USA, set about designing their version of a water purifier. Water is first filtered, then passes through a field of channels in a black corrugated plastic collector.

When the water reaches 71°C (160°F), and is suitable for drinking, a thermostat will open and allow the potable water to flow into an adjacent bucket. Capacity for the system is approximately four gallons of pasteurized water per hour.

PCIA Partner Feature – Samuchit Enviro Tech Pvt Ltd

November 30, 2010 · 0 comments

Samuchit Enviro Tech Pvt Ltd is a commercial partner of Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI), a leading internationally acclaimed NGO, working in the field of household energy and IAP mitigation. Samuchit’s mission is to capture maximum “Share of Kitchen” of rural, semi-urban & urban poor households in terms of sustainable, energy & cost efficient cooking devices and bio-energy fuels.

Its goal is to reach 10% of the rural and semi-urban population of India by 2020, and in the process, generate sustainable livelihoods and improve quality of life by reducing indoor air pollution (IAP), primarily for the rural populace. It has been operational since 2006. Samuchit was the pioneer in commercial selling (as opposed to giving away free or subsidizing) improved cooking stoves and biogas systems in India. At present, Samuchit offers the widest product range as compared to any other company/NGO anywhere in the world, working for reducing IAP.

Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL)

November 30, 2010 · 0 comments

The Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) is a unique new research, development, project implementation, and community outreach facility based at the University of California, Berkeley in the Energy and Resouces Group and the Department of Nuclear Engineering. RAEL focuses on designing, testing, and disseminating renewable and appropriate energy systems. The laboratory’s mission is to help these technologies realize their full potential to contribute to environmentally sustainable development in both industrialized and developing nations while also addressing the cultural context and range of potential social impacts of any new technology or resource management system.

Jompy Stove – Boils water/cooks, World Challenge 2010 Finalist

November 30, 2010 · 0 comments

The Jompy is designed and patented by David Osborne in Troon, Scotland. It has been very successfully tried and tested in Africa and India, and is now available through Uchumi stores throughout Kenya.

The Jompy is a highly effective water boiler that allows the consumer to carry out two tasks at the same time: boiling water whilst cooking. This unique product (weighing just 600g) can boil 1 litre of water every 45-60 seconds with the water reaching temperatures of up to 86 degrees, drastically reducing the amount of fuel required; as well as providing a means of clean hot water to improve sanitation.

It is one of the finalists in the World Challenge 2010 contest which is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots level.

Indoor exposure to respirable particulate matter and particulate-phase PAHs in India

November 29, 2010 · 0 comments

Environ Monit Assess. 2010 Nov;170(1-4):491-7.

Indoor exposure to respirable particulate matter and particulate-phase PAHs in rural homes in North India.

Ansari FA, Khan AH, Patel DK, Siddiqui H, Sharma S, Ashquin M, Ahmad I.

Fiber Toxicology Division, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Post Box No. 80, Lucknow, 226 001, India.

In order to evaluate the exposure of the northern India rural population to polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) inhalation, indoor pollution was assessed by collecting and analyzing the respirable particulate matter PM2.5 and PM10 in several homes of the village Bhithauli near Lucknow, UP. The home selection was determined by a survey. Given the nature of biomass used for cooking, homes were divided into two groups, one using all kinds of biomass and the second type using plant materials only.

Indoor mean concentrations of PM2.5 and associated PAHs during cooking ranged from 1.19±0.29 to 2.38±0.35 and 6.21±1.54 to 12.43±1.15 μg/m3, respectively. Similarly, PM10 and total PAHs were in the range of 3.95±1.21 to 8.81±0.78 and 7.75±1.42 to 15.77±1.05 μg/m3, respectively. The pollutant levels during cooking were significantly higher compared to the noncooking period. The study confirmed that indoor pollution depends on the kind of biomass fuel used for cooking.

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