Effects of Woodsmoke Exposure on Airway Inflammation in Rural Guatemalan Women

March 19, 2014 · 0 comments

Effects of Woodsmoke Exposure on Airway Inflammation in Rural Guatemalan Women. PLoS One, Mar 2014.

Authors: Michael J. Guarnieri, et al.

Background – More than two-fifths of the world’s population uses solid fuels, mostly biomass, for cooking. The resulting biomass smoke exposure is a major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among women in developing countries.

Objective – To assess whether lower woodsmoke exposure from use of a stove with a chimney, compared to open fires, is associated with lower markers of airway inflammation in young women.

Design – We carried out a cross-sectional analysis on a sub-cohort of participants enrolled in a randomized controlled trial in rural Guatemala, RESPIRE.

Participants – We recruited 45 indigenous women at the end of the 18-month trial; 19 women who had been using the chimney stove for 18–24 months and 26 women still using open fires.

Measurements – We obtained spirometry and induced sputum for cell counts, gene expression of IL-8, TNF-α, MMP-9 and 12, and protein concentrations of IL-8, myeloperoxidase and fibronectin. Exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) and 48-hr personal CO tubes were measured to assess smoke exposure.

Results – MMP-9 gene expression was significantly lower in women using chimney stoves. Higher exhaled CO concentrations were significantly associated with higher gene expression of IL-8, TNF-α, and MMP-9. Higher 48-hr personal CO concentrations were associated with higher gene expression of IL-8, TNF- α, MMP-9 and MMP-12; reaching statistical significance for MMP-9 and MMP-12.

Conclusions – Compared to using an open wood fire for cooking, use of a chimney stove was associated with lower gene expression of MMP-9, a potential mediator of airway remodeling. Among all participants, indoor biomass smoke exposure was associated with higher gene expression of multiple mediators of airway inflammation and remodeling; these mechanisms may explain some of the observed association between prolonged biomass smoke exposure and COPD.

Senator Collins Introduces Clean Cookstoves Bill That Would Improve Environment, Public Health

March 12, 2014 · 0 comments

March 10, 2014 – Sen. Collins Introduces Clean Cookstoves Bill That Would Improve Environment, Public Health

Excerpt: WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins today introduced the “Clean Cookstoves Support Act,” a bill that would reduce carbon pollution and improve public health by supporting a global market for clean and efficient cookstoves.

“Replacing unsafe cookstoves with modern alternatives is the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of environmental fixes,” Senator Collins said. “It can be done relatively quickly and inexpensively and would improve lives, empower women, and combat pollution around the world.”

Nearly half the world’s population cooks over open fires or inefficient, polluting and unsafe cookstoves using wood, agricultural waste, dung, coal, and other solid fuels. Smoke from these traditional stoves is associated with chronic and acute diseases that disproportionately affect women and young children. These stoves also create serious environmental problems by emitting black carbon that contributes to regional air pollution and climate change.

The “Clean Cookstoves Support Act,” co-sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), would reinforce the U.S. Government’s commitment to spur the adoption of clean cookstoves around the world. It would require the Secretary of State to work to advance the goals of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which was formed through the leadership of Secretary of State Clinton and the United Nation’s Foundation to help create a thriving global market for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The Alliance has the goal of spurring the adoption of clean cookstoves in 100 million homes by 2020.

The bill would also authorize existing funding commitments made by the U.S. Government to support the Alliance’s mission. Several federal agencies and departments-including the Departments of State, Energy, Health and Human Services and the United States Agency for International Development, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation-have committed a total of up to $125 million to the sector for the first five years of the Alliance.

Field Study of Black Carbon Reductions From Use of Improved Cookstoves

March 12, 2014 · 0 comments

Field Study of Black Carbon Reductions From Use of Improved Cookstoves, 2014.

Project Surya

Black carbon (BC) is a component of fine particulate matter that is generated during incomplete combustion of fossil and biomass fuels. BC is thought to contribute to human lung disease and premature mortality, is a short-lived climate forcing agent, and the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. Because residential uses of biomass fuel (for cooking, heating, and lighting) contribute significantly to regional production of BC, targeting cooking for reduction in emissions has been identified as one of the top 14 measures out of 400 for near-term mitigation of climate change (Shindell et al., 2012). Similarly, of all measures to reduce BC, targeting residential sources could have the greatest overall health benefits (Anenberg et al., 2013). These directives may especially hold true in India, where residential biofuel use is the biggest individual source, contributing close to 50% of all BC emissions (Streets et al., 2013).

Thus, usage of improved biomass cookstoves that can substantially reduce BC in households may result in significant health and climate benefits. In a series of controlled cooking tests in one household, Project Surya identified that “forced draft” stoves were the most effective technologies, of those tested, for reducing black carbon concentrations. While this data is encouraging, more data is needed to quantify the reductions in BC concentrations when a household uses a forced-draft cookstove for daily cooking. The current lack of data under real-world conditions is due to multiple factors, including challenges in capturing BC emissions in the field and the cost of data collection using industry standard instruments.

Indoor Exposure to Particulate Matter and Age at First Acute Lower Respiratory Infection in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh

March 12, 2014 · 0 comments

Indoor Exposure to Particulate Matter and Age at First Acute Lower Respiratory Infection in a Low-Income Urban Community in Bangladesh. Am. J. Epidemiol, March 2014.

Authors: Emily S. Gurley, et al.

The timing of a child’s first acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) is important, because the younger a child is when he or she experiences ALRI, the greater the risk of death. Indoor exposure to particulate matter less than or equal to 2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5) has been associated with increased frequency of ALRI, but little is known about how it may affect the timing of a child’s first ALRI. In this study, we aimed to estimate the association between a child’s age at first ALRI and indoor exposure to PM2.5 in a low-income community in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We followed 257 children from birth through age 2 years to record their age at first ALRI.

Between May 2009 and April 2010, we also measured indoor concentrations of PM2.5 in children’s homes. We used generalized gamma distribution models to estimate the relative age at first ALRI associated with the mean number of hours in which PM2.5 concentrations exceeded 100 µg/m3. Each hour in which PM2.5 levels exceeded 100 µg/m3 was independently associated with a 12% decrease (95% confidence interval: 2, 21; P = 0.021) in age at first ALRI. Interventions to reduce indoor exposure to PM2.5 could increase the ages at which children experience their first ALRI in this urban community.

Assessing the Impact of Water Filters and Improved Cook Stoves on Drinking Water Quality and Household Air Pollution

March 11, 2014 · 0 comments

Assessing the Impact of Water Filters and Improved Cook Stoves on Drinking Water Quality and Household Air Pollution: A Randomised Controlled Trial in Rwanda. PLoS One, March 2014.

Authors: Ghislaine Rosa, et al.

Diarrhoea and respiratory infections remain the biggest killers of children under 5 years in developing countries. We conducted a 5-month household randomised controlled trial among 566 households in rural Rwanda to assess uptake, compliance and impact on environmental exposures of a combined intervention delivering high-performance water filters and improved stoves for free. Compliance was measured monthly by self-report and spot-check observations. Semi-continuous 24-h PM2.5 monitoring of the cooking area was conducted in a random subsample of 121 households to assess household air pollution, while samples of drinking water from all households were collected monthly to assess the levels of thermotolerant coliforms.

Adoption was generally high, with most householders reporting the filters as their primary source of drinking water and the intervention stoves as their primary cooking stove. However, some householders continued to drink untreated water and most continued to cook on traditional stoves. The intervention was associated with a 97.5% reduction in mean faecal indicator bacteria (Williams means 0.5 vs. 20.2 TTC/100 mL, p<0.001) and a median reduction of 48% of 24-h PM2.5 concentrations in the cooking area (p = 0.005). Further studies to increase compliance should be undertaken to better inform large-scale interventions.

Contacts/ Websites of Clean Cookstove Community members – March 7, 2014

March 6, 2014 · 4 comments

Contacts/ Websites of Clean Cookstove Community members – March 7, 2014

Below is a listing of organizations and individuals that have joined the Clean Cookstove Community as of March 7, 2014. We hope the Clean Cookstove Community on Linkedin will become a crowdsourcing resource for sharing information on solutions to cookstove and household air pollution issues.

Please contact WASHplus to make any additions or corrections to this list.

Berkeley Air Monitoring Group – Berkeley Air is a social venture based in California, USA dedicated to protecting global health and climate. We are a leading monitoring and evaluation partner for energy, health, and development organizations working in developing countries.

BURN Manufacturing – In July 2013, BURN installed its first stove assembly line in Nairobi, Kenya. In July 2014 BURN will open a production facility that will allow us to manufacture 99% of our components in Kenya.

Carnegie Mellon University

  • Melissa D., Graduate student

Cookstove at Catalyzing Clean Energy in Bangladesh

  • Contact: Anowar Mollah, Deputy Task Lead

Cookswell Jikos – At Cookswell Jikos, we provide our customers with original designs of professional charcoal and wood fueled stoves, convection ovens, improved space heaters, charcoal making kilns and tree seeds. All our products are made by professionally trained artisans in Kenya.

Engineers  Without Borders

  • Rahul Mitra, International Development Engineer

Environmental Protection Agency – The EPA develops and enforces regulations for human health and environment protection, as well as voluntary and technical assistance programs, and international coordination on environmental issues.

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) – IIASA is an international scientific institute that conducts policy‑oriented research into problems that are too large or too complex to be solved by a single country.

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Revealing Demand for Pro-Poor Innovations

March 4, 2014 · 0 comments

Revealing Demand for Pro-Poor Innovations, n.d.

Authors: USAID

Social scientists and engineers have begun using new techniques to capture user preferences and market information from underserved communities. These include behavioral experiments, sensing devices, big data analytics, participatory data collection methods, and qualitative approaches. This white paper seeks to provide an overview of the many different tools used for unveiling the demand for new products and services in developing countries.

Section 1 focuses on advances in the field of empirical economics, including techniques for estimating people’s willingness to pay for new products and services. Sensors and meters are the topic of Section 2, which examines how electronic devices are being applied to monitor the use of new technologies, measure the impacts of interventions, and improve product design. Section 3 lays out pioneering initiatives in the field of Big Data, leveraging the fast expansion of high-frequency data streams to identify areas of unmet demand for innovation. Finally, Sections 4 and 5 review more traditional methods used for revealing demand, and highlight how recent advances—like participatory assessments and textual analysis—have been used to overcome limitations.

Indoor air pollution in slum neighbourhoods of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

March 4, 2014 · 1 comment

Indoor air pollution in slum neighbourhoods of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Atmospheric Environment, June 2014.

Authors: Habtamu Sanbataa, et al.

Highlights
• Average PM2.5 concentration measured in homes using fuels exceed WHO guidelines.
• We examine differences in the PM2.5 concentration from fuel types in urban homes.
• We compare the emission concentration between different stove types.
• The efficiency of traditional stoves is only about 15%.
• The use of clean fuels and efficient cooking stoves will improve indoor air quality.

An estimated 95% of the population of Ethiopia uses traditional biomass fuels, such as wood, dung, charcoal, or crop residues, to meet household energy needs. As a result of the harmful smoke emitted from the combustion of biomass fuels, indoor air pollution is responsible for more than 50,000 deaths annually and causes nearly 5% of the burden of disease in Ethiopia. Very limited research on indoor air pollution and its health impacts exists in Ethiopia. This study was, therefore, undertaken to assess the magnitude of indoor air pollution from household fuel use in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. During January and February, 2012, the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in 59 households was measured using the University of California at Berkeley Particle Monitor (UCB PM). The raw data was analysed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS version 20.0) software to determine variance between groups and descriptive statistics.

The geometric mean of 24-h indoor PM2.5 concentration is approximately 818 μg m−3 (Standard deviation (SD = 3.61)). The highest 24-h geometric mean of PM2.5 concentration observed were 1134 μg m−3 (SD = 3.36), 637 μg m−3 (SD = 4.44), and 335 μg m−3 (SD = 2.51), respectively, in households using predominantly solid fuel, kerosene, and clean fuel. Although 24-h mean PM2.5 concentration between fuel types differed statistically (P < 0.05), post hoc pairwise comparison indicated no significant difference in mean concentration of PM2.5 between improved biomass stoves and traditional stoves (P > 0.05). The study revealed indoor air pollution is a major environmental and health hazard from home using biomass fuel in Addis Ababa. The use of clean fuels and efficient cooking stoves is recommended.

The effect of biomass fuel exposure on the prevalence of asthma in adults in India

March 4, 2014 · 0 comments

The effect of biomass fuel exposure on the prevalence of asthma in adults in India – review of current evidence. Journal of Asthma, March 2014.

Authors: Jennifer Trevor, et al.

Introduction: The combustion of biomass fuels is a major source of respiratory disease among individuals in the developing world. Over two million people world-wide rely on biomass fuels to supply their household energy needs with an estimated 1.6 million deaths annually being attributable to biomass smoke exposure. As a developing country, India relies heavily on the use of solid fuels as a source of energy. These materials supply 75% of the country’s domestic energy need and are attributed as the cause of over 600 000 deaths annually. Diseases such as chronic bronchitis and acute lower respiratory tract infections are strongly correlated to biomass smoke exposure. While not as strongly correlated, accumulating evidence suggests that asthma prevalence may be related to solid fuel smoke.

Methods: This review examines the current literature linking biomass smoke exposure to the reporting of asthma symptoms. A PubMed search was performed using key terms biomass, asthma, India and respiratory disease. Preference was given to recent articles that surveyed the adult population within India.

Results: The reviewed articles showed an increased odds ratio for reporting a diagnosis of asthma or symptoms consistent with asthma following biomass smoke exposure. While the literature supports a strong association between household air pollution and the development of chronic bronchitis and acute lower respiratory tract infections in India, this review establishes a more firm relationship between reported asthma symptoms and biomass smoke exposure.

Conclusion: The exposure to biomass fuel smoke results in respiratory diseases in developing countries. Among these diseases, asthma appears to be a preventable pulmonary pathology that is associated with household air pollution. Measures to reduce exposure may decrease the burden of disease which could help advance social and economic progress in these nations. Further research and out-reach efforts are needed to reduce the total burden of lung diseases, including asthma, across the developing world. This reduction could save millions of dollars annually and lower morbidity and mortality in the affected populations.

Biomass smoke in Burkina Faso: what is the relationship between particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and kitchen characteristics?

February 26, 2014 · 0 comments

Biomass smoke in Burkina Faso: what is the relationship between particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and kitchen characteristics? Environmental Science and Pollution Research, February 2014.

S. S. Yamamoto, V. R. Louis, A. Sié, R. Sauerborn

In Burkina Faso where cooking with biomass is very common, little information exists regarding kitchen characteristics and their impact on air pollutant levels. The measurement of air pollutants such as respirable particulate matter (PM10), an important component of biomass smoke that has been linked to adverse health outcomes, can also pose challenges in terms of cost and the type of equipment needed. Carbon monoxide could potentially be a more economical and simpler measure of air pollution.

The focus of this study was to first assess the association of kitchen characteristics with measured PM10 and CO levels and second, the relationship of PM10 with CO concentrations, across these different kitchen characteristics in households in Nouna, Burkina Faso. Twenty-four-hour concentrations of PM10 (area) were measured with portable monitors and CO (area and personal) estimated using color dosimeter tubes. Data on kitchen characteristics were collected through surveys. Most households used both wood and charcoal burned in three-stone and charcoal stoves. Mean outdoor kitchen PM10 levels were relatively high (774 μg/m3, 95 % CI 329–1,218 μg/m3), but lower than indoor concentrations (Satterthwaite t value, −6.14; p < 0.0001). In multivariable analyses, outdoor kitchens were negatively associated with PM10 (OR = 0.06, 95 % CI 0.02–0.16, p value <0.0001) and CO (OR = 0.03, 95 % CI 0.01–0.11, p value <0.0001) concentrations. Strong area PM10 and area CO correlations were found with indoor kitchens (Spearman’s r = 0.82, p < 0.0001), indoor stove use (Spearman’s r = 0.82, p < 0.0001), and the presence of a smoker in the household (Spearman’s r = 0.83, p < 0.0001).

Weak correlations between area PM10 and personal CO levels were observed with three-stone (Spearman’s r = 0.23, p = 0.008) and improved stoves (Spearman’s r = 0.34, p = 0.003). This indicates that the extensive use of biomass fuels and multiple stove types for cooking still produce relatively high levels of exposure, even outdoors, suggesting that both fuel subsidies and stove improvement programs are likely necessary to address this problem. These findings also indicate that area CO color dosimeter tubes could be a useful measure of area PM10 concentrations when levels are influenced by strong emission sources or when used in indoors. The weaker correlation observed between area PM10 and personal CO levels suggests that area exposures are not as useful as proxies for personal exposures, which can vary widely from those recorded by stationary monitors.

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