Patterns of Stove Usage after Introduction of an Advanced Cookstove: The Long-Term Application of Household Sensors. Env Sci Technol, Dec 2014.
Authors: Ajay Pillarisetti,*,† Mayur Vaswani,‡ Darby Jack,§ Kalpana Balakrishnan,∥ Michael N. Bates,†
Narendra K. Arora,‡ and Kirk R. Smith†
† Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720,
United States
‡ The INCLEN Trust International, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110020, India
§ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
10032, United States
∥ Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai-600116, India
Household air pollution generated from solid fuel use for cooking is one of the leading risk factors for ill health globally. Deployment of advanced cookstoves to reduce emissions has been a major focus of intervention efforts.However, household usage of these stoves and resulting changes in usage of traditional polluting stoves is not well characterized. In Palwal District, Haryana, India, we carried out an intervention utilizing the Philips HD4012 fan-assisted stove,one of the cleanest biomass stoves available. We placed small,unobtrusive data-logging iButton thermometers on both the traditional and Philips stoves to collect continuous data on use patterns in 200 homes over 60 weeks. Intervention stove usage declined steadily over time and stabilized after approximately 200 days; use of the traditional stove remained relatively constant. We additionally evaluated how well short-duration usage measures predicted long-term use. Measuring usage over time of both traditional and intervention stoves provides better understanding of cooking behaviors and can lead to more precise quantification of potential exposure reductions and consequent health benefits attributable to interventions.
