Chemical Characterization and Source Apportionment of Household Fine Particulate Matter

January 15, 2014 · 0 comments

Chemical Characterization and Source Apportionment of Household Fine Particulate Matter in Rural, Peri-urban, and Urban West Africa. Environ. Sci. Technol., December 18, 2013.

Authors: Zheng Zhou, et al. Email contact: majid.ezzati@imperial.ac.uk .

Household air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions is an important cause of disease burden. Little is known about the chemical composition and sources of household air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa, and how they differ between rural and urban homes. We analyzed the chemical composition and sources of fine particles (PM2.5) in household cooking areas of multiple neighborhoods in Accra, Ghana, and in peri-urban (Banjul) and rural (Basse) areas in The Gambia.

In Accra, biomass burning accounted for 39–62% of total PM2.5 mass in the cooking area in different neighborhoods; the absolute contributions were 10–45 μg/m3. Road dust and vehicle emissions comprised 12–33% of PM2.5 mass. Solid waste burning was also a significant contributor to household PM2.5 in a low-income neighborhood but not for those living in better-off areas. In Banjul and Basse, biomass burning was the single dominant source of cooking-area PM2.5, accounting for 74–87% of its total mass; the relative and absolute contributions of biomass smoke to PM2.5 mass were larger in households that used firewood than in those using charcoal, reaching as high as 463 μg/m3 in Basse homes that used firewood for cooking. Our findings demonstrate the need for policies that enhance access to cleaner fuels in both rural and urban areas, and for controlling traffic emissions in cities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Addressing Household Air Pollution : A Case Study in Rural Madagascar

January 15, 2014 · 0 comments

Addressing Household Air Pollution : A Case Study in Rural Madagascar, 2013.

Authors – Dasgupta, Susmita; Martin, Paul; Samad, Hussain A. World Bank.

Abstract – Household air pollution is the second leading cause of disease in Madagascar, where more than 99 percent of households rely on solid biomass, such as charcoal, wood, and crop waste, as the main cooking fuel. Only a limited number of studies have looked at the emissions and health consequences of cook stoves in Africa. This paper summarizes an initiative to monitor household air pollution in two towns in Madagascar, with a stratified sample of 154 and 184 households.

Concentrations of fine particulate matter and carbon monoxide in each kitchen were monitored three times using UCB Particle Monitors and GasBadge Pro Single Gas Monitors. The average concentrations of both pollutants significantly exceeded World Health Organization guidelines for indoor exposure. A fixed-effect panel regression analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of various factors, including fuel (charcoal, wood, and ethanol), stove (traditional and improved ethanol), kitchen size, ventilation, building materials, and ambient environment.

Judging by its effect on fine particulate matter and carbon monoxide, ethanol is significantly cleaner than biomass fuels and, for both pollutants, a larger kitchen significantly improves the quality of household air. Compared with traditional charcoal stoves, improved charcoal stoves were found to have no significant impact on air quality, but the improved wood stove with a chimney was effective in reducing concentrations of carbon monoxide in the kitchen, as was ventilation.

Impact of biomass fuels on pregnancy outcomes in central East India

January 15, 2014 · 0 comments

Impact of biomass fuels on pregnancy outcomes in central East India. Environmental Health 2014, 13:1

Authors – Blair J Wylie, et al. (bwylie@partners.org)

Background – Smoke from biomass burning has been linked to reduced birth weight; association with other birth outcomes is poorly understood. Our objective was to evaluate effects of exposure to biomass smoke on birth weight, preterm birth and stillbirth.

Methods – Information on household cooking fuel was available for secondary analysis from two cohorts of pregnant women enrolled at delivery in India (n = 1744). Birth weight was measured and the modified Ballard performed to assess gestational age. Linear and logistic regression models were used to explore associations between fuel and birth outcomes. Effect sizes were adjusted in multivariate models for socio-demographic characteristics using propensity score techniques and for medical/obstetric covariates.

Results- Compared to women who use gas (n = 265), women cooking with wood (n = 1306) delivered infants that were on average 112 grams lighter (95%CI -170.1, -54.6) and more likely to be preterm (OR 3.11, 95%CI 2.12, 4.59). Stillbirths were also more common in the wood group (4% versus 0%, p < 0.001). In adjusted models, the association between wood use and birth weight was no longer significant (14 g reduction; 95% CI -93, 66); however, the increased odds for preterm birth persisted (aOR 2.29; 95%CI 1.24, 4.21). Wood fuel use did not increase the risk of delivering either a low birth weight or small for gestational age infant.

Conclusions – The association between wood fuel use and reduced birth weight was insignificant in multivariate models using propensity score techniques to account for socio-demographic differences. In contrast, we demonstrated a persistent adverse impact of wood fuel use on preterm delivery. If prematurity is confirmed as a consequence of antenatal exposure to household air pollution, perinatal morbidity and mortality fromhousehold air pollution may be higher than previously appreciated.

WASHplus HAP/IAP Survey

January 14, 2014 · 0 comments

Dear Colleagues:

WASHplus developed a short survey of 11 questions to find out more about the interests and information needs of cookstove researchers and practitioners so please fill in and/or share the survey link which is:

Hopefully, feedback from the survey will be used to collaborate on webinars, obtain guest authors for IAP Updates, develop knowledge management products on key HAP/IAP issues, etc.

Dan Campbell, Knowledge Resources Specialist
WASHplus Project
1825 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington DC 20009
Email: dacampbell@fhi360.org

WASHplus Weekly – Focus on Carbon Finance for Cookstoves

January 10, 2014 · 0 comments

WASHplus Weekly – Issue 129 January 10, 2014 | Focus on Carbon Finance for Cookstoves

Accessing finance is a major constraint to scaling up cookstove adoption. Carbon finance provides an opportunity for cookstove entrepreneurs to develop projects, though the process involves rigorous monitoring and a number of rules need to be followed. This issue of the WASHplus Weekly focuses on resources that provide guidance to cookstove project developers to better understand carbon finance, including reports, papers, project design documents, tools, videos, and useful websites.

NOTE: If you haven’t done so already, the WASHplus Knowledge Management (KM) team would appreciate your comments and suggestions about products and services provided by WASHplus. The link to the survey is https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3G7SH7C.

RESOURCES

Assessing the Climate Impacts of Cookstove Projects: Issues in Emissions Accounting, 2013. C Lee, Stockholm Environmental Institute Working Paper. (PDF)
This paper evaluates the quantification approaches to three key variables in calculating emission impacts: biomass fuel consumption, fraction of nonrenewable biomass, and emission factors for fuel consumption. It draws on a literature review as well as on interviews with technical experts and market actors, identifies lessons learned and knowledge gaps as well as key research needs, including refinement of monitoring approaches for cookstove use and broadened scope of emission factors used for cookstoves.

Performance of Designated Operational Entities in Household Energy Projects: Benchmarking Survey, 2013. E Gatti, Nexus-Carbon for Development. (PDF)
This study assesses the performance of Designated Operational Entities (DOEs) during validation and verification of small-scale carbon projects. The study aims to enhance the fairness, transparency, and accessibility to climate finance for small-scale household energy projects including cookstoves. This study includes a set of performance indicators that can be used to benchmark the performance of DOEs over time.

Maneuvering the Mosaic: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2013. Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace & Bloomberg New Energy Finance. (PDF)
Consumer awareness of the immediate impacts and future risks of climate change is trending upward—converging with a global economic scenario that complicates the implementation of broad-based policy solutions. But where some policymakers fear to tread, many private companies are voluntarily internalizing the price of carbon in their business activities, as seen in their still-growing voluntary demand for carbon offsets.

[click to continue…]

Bookmark and Share

A rights-based approach to indoor air pollution

January 7, 2014 · 0 comments

A rights-based approach to indoor air pollution. Health and Human Rights 2013, 15/2.

Jamie Lim, Stephen Petersen, Dan Schwarz, Ryan Schwarz, Duncan Maru

Abstract – Household indoor air pollution from open-fire cookstoves remains a public health and environmental hazard which impacts negatively on people’s right to health. Technologically improved cookstoves designed to reduce air pollution have demonstrated their efficacy in laboratory studies. Despite the tremendous need for such stoves, in the field they have often failed to be effective, with low rates of long-term adoption by users, mainly due to poor maintenance of the stoves. In poor, rural, isolated communities, there is unlikely to be a single behavioral or technological “fix” to this problem.

In this paper, we suggest that improved cookstoves are an important health intervention to which people have a right, as they do to family planning, vaccination, and essential primary care medicines. Like these other necessary elements in the fulfillment of the right to health, access to clean indoor air should be incorporated into state health strategies, policies, and plans. State infrastructure and health systems should support public and private sector delivery of improved cookstove services, and ensure that such services reach all communities, even those that are poor, located remotely, and likely not to be served by the market.

We suggest that community health workers could play a critical role in creating demand for, implementing facilitation and delivery of, and monitoring these cookstoves and related services. Through this approach, improved cookstoves could become an appealing, available, and sustainable option for the rural poor. In this paper, we adopt a human rights-based approach to overcome the problem of indoor air pollution, and we use Nepal as an example.

Nigeria, USAID launch safe cooking energy program

January 7, 2014 · 0 comments

Nigeria, USAID launches safe cooking energy program | Source: Daily Trust, Dec 18, 2013 |

The Niger State Government has launched the safe cooking energy programme in order to extend the benefits of safe cooking energy to half a million households and facilitate small businesses over the next three years.

The Safe Cooking Energy Programme is a partnership between the Niger State Government and USAID, the Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility and the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cook stoves. The Nigerian Infrastructure Advisory Facility will provide technical assistance to the implementation of the programme.

USAID is already financing a project to extend the benefits of clean cooking to secondary schools in the state and as such Niger State has already installed highly efficient wood stoves in twenty six of its boarding secondary schools and reduced wood use by school kitchens to more than 80 per cent, saving money and the health of cooks in school kitchens.

The Commissioner for Science and Technology, Dr. Mustapha Lemu, said that Niger State would indigenise efficient wood burning technologies and this would contribute to industrial growth in the state.  “The programme will contribute to the transformation agenda of the Government of Niger State by stimulating economic growth and reducing impacts on health and environment”, he added.

The newly launched programme would replace traditional use of fire wood in the rest of public institutions with efficient wood burning technologies. It would build a stove production plant in the state and create over 1,500 new jobs. The programme will empower women by training them to produce and sell stoves. It will also reduce deforestation.

 

 

 

Bangladesh launches Country Action Plan for clean cookstoves

January 7, 2014 · 0 comments

Go green, cook clean | Source/complete article: Dhaka Tribune, Jan 4, 2014

Faisal Mahmud writes about a cheaper alternative for fuel for the common household

Excerpts – Introducing the clean cookstove
The Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has recently launched a Country Action Plan (CAP) for “clean” cooking solutions – meaning an alternative for the conventional cookstove that is cost-effective, safe and environment-friendly. The government aims to distribute these clean cookstoves among 50 lakh households throughout the country by 2017, and three crore by 2030, keeping people safe from potential health, fire and environment hazards.

The Washington-based Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC), Netherlands Development Organisation and German Development Cooperation are working with Bangladesh government to achieve the reach the households without government-supplied fuel connections, along with other development partners. GACC is also working with the Power Division to implement the CAP.

Why the initiative?
Power Division Secretary Monowar Islam said the age-old cooking practices in Bangladesh are prone to cause severe health hazards to the members of the households, especially the women, who breathe in the smoke which has a high content of pollutants.

A study conducted by GACC supports Monowar’s statement. According to that study, over 49,000 deaths are caused by household air pollution every year, with more than three crore families affected by it. Over 32,000 deaths are results of acute lower respiratory infections, and around 14,000 are the result of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Women and children are the two groups most affected.

The study also states that an estimated 89% of the population uses solid fuels for cooking. The rapidly expanding population and heavy reliance on biomass have put pressure on the country’s limited forest resources, with 50% decrease in the forest area since 1970.

Al Mudaddir Din Anam, regional manager for GACC, said: “Fire wood is becoming increasingly scarce and more expensive, which has pushed many consumers towards other forms of fuel, such as crop residues, rice husk briquettes and cow dung.”

Anam also stated that about 10 lakh stoves are thought to be in use at present – a penetration of 3% – and the market for these stoves are not sustainable yet. However, he added: “Grameen Shakti and GIZ operate two of the largest improved cookstove programmes in the country and have projected further growth in the years to come.”
Ironically, anecdotal evidence suggests that many other stove producers are struggling with the low demand for the improved cookstoves, as not many people are aware of it.

The plan
Government representatives, NGOs, private sector enterprises and donors are working with GACC to develop a strategic action plan to catalyse the improved cookstoves and fuel market in Bangladesh. The CAP, mentioned earlier, is as follows:

  • Facilitate access to testing services for Bangladeshi organisations GACC will work to build capacity in the regional testing centres by facilitating the exchange of information regarding the latest protocols, upgrading equipment, promoting best practices in testing and improving stoves, and helping to maintain quality and consistency across testing facilities.
  • Expand distribution of quality cookstoves and fuels by leveraging current networks. GACC will broker partnerships between cookstove and fuel producers and a variety of distribution channels which are already in place in Bangladesh. These existing distribution channels can include MFIs, NGOs, SACCOs, retail chains and private sector companies with large, existing distribution networks that have a wide can go and reach the last mile.
  • Support the Power Division to coordinate and implement the CAP. The Power Division is leading the coordination in Bangladesh, including tracking the progress of the CAP. GACC will assist the government in facilitating the clean cookstove and fuel programme coordination within the country and the implementation of any policy-related or government-relevant interventions outlined in the CAP.
  • Broaden the available technology options that are locally developed.  GACC will work with local and international partners to incentivise innovation of new technologies and work with international manufacturers to improve the design of their technologies to better meet consumer needs.

Source/complete article: Dhaka Tribune, Jan 4, 2014

Kenya’s unemployed youth find fresh hope in the form of LivelyHoods

January 7, 2014 · 0 comments

Kenya’s unemployed youth find fresh hope in the form of LivelyHoods | Source/complete article: Poverty Matters/The Guardian, Jan 5, 2014 |

A social enterprise project that trains young people to sell goods of benefit to local communities in the slums of Nairobi is thriving

Excerpts: In 2010, Tania Laden and Maria Springer founded LivelyHoods, a social enterprise project designed to create work for young people in the urban slums of Kenya. In the two and a half years since, an initiative born of the willingness of two American twenty somethings to listen to the needs of Kenya’s youth, and tailor their methods accordingly, has shown that – with invention and open-mindedness – it is not impossible to forge economic opportunities for a generation faced by massive unemployment.

The LivelyHoods project, which began in Kawangware, a densely populated urban slum about nine miles (15km) from Nairobi, is designed to create employment opportunities by training young people to sell products tailored to the needs of their communities. Cornerstones of the scheme’s iSmart brand include fuel-efficient cookstoves, of which 3,233 have been sold so far, as well as solar lamps and reusable sanitary products for women. All the products are vetted for their suitability, first by the LivelyHoods sales team and then by potential customers.

On completing their training, sales agents are invited to select a daily consignment of goods worth $75 (£50) from one of the project’s two shops. They earn up to 20% commission on everything they sell, and are free to return or replenish stock as they see fit. So far, the scheme has provided training for 227 young people, 84 of whom have been given full-time jobs. In 2014, Springer and Laden hope to double the number of trainees.

Household Air Pollution from Cookstoves: Impacts on Health and Climate

January 7, 2014 · 0 comments

Household Air Pollution from Cookstoves: Impacts on Health and Climate. Global Climate Change and Public Health, Respiratory Medicine Volume 7, 2014, pp 237-255.

William J. Martin II,  et al.

Household air pollution (HAP) is an exposure of poverty. The success in having a sustainable reduction in HAP requires an understanding of the traditions and culture of the family as well as the causes of poverty that place the family at the bottom of the energy ladder. An integrated approach to reducing HAP with efforts also aimed at correcting other poverty-related issues is challenging but offers the hope for addressing root causes of poverty in a community setting that provides a more comprehensive and sustainable approach to improving health, the environment, and, ultimately, the global climate.

From one perspective, research that provides detailed exposure-responses to HAP may seem superfluous to the obvious need for poor families to breathe cleaner air at home. One can argue that we already have decades of information on the health risks from outdoor air pollution or the products of incomplete combustion from tobacco smoke and so further research is not needed. However, there is a compelling need to know how clean a stove or fuel must be to significantly reduce health risks, so that with proper use, major implementation of such new technology may reasonably provide the intended benefits for improved health, the regional environment, and the global climate.

The alternative of providing electrification or use of clean fuels such as LPG may not be realistic for the world’s poor for decades to come, if ever. Addressing the key scientific gaps related to HAP and its reduction will provide critical new information that can inform large scale implementation programs to provide sufficiently clean household air for families living in poverty, such that diseases are prevented, a healthier lifestyle is promoted, and a reduction in global warming trends buys more time for a planet in peril from climate change.

 

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →