Addressing household air pollution: a case study in rural Madagascar

November 8, 2013 · 0 comments

Addressing household air pollution : a case study in rural Madagascar, 2013.

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

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.

World Bank – On Thin Ice: How Cutting Pollution Can Slow Warming and Save Lives

November 5, 2013 · 0 comments

On Thin Ice: How Cutting Pollution Can Slow Warming and Save Lives, 2013.

A Joint Report of The World Bank and The International Cryosphere Climate Initiative

Excerpts – This report is about how climate change is affecting the cryosphere—those snow-capped mountain ranges, brilliant glaciers, and vast permafrost regions on which all of us depend. It lays out 14 specific measures we could take by 2030 to reduce short-lived climate pollutants and slow the melting of ice and snow that must stay frozen to keep oceans and global temperatures from rising even faster. Action to stabilize the cryosphere will also save lives now. By mitigating short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane, we will improve health in thousands of communities, many of them in the developing world.

If we quickly scale up just four cleaner cooking solutions, for example, we could save one million human lives every year. That is one-quarter of the mostly women and children who die from exposure from indoor and outdoor cooking smoke annually. The benefits would multiply because, with cleaner air, cities become more productive, child health improves, and more food can be grown. All the while, we would reduce the warming impact that black carbon from these cookstoves has on polar and mountain regions, especially in the Himalayas.

The modeling in this report shows a special need to focus more urgently on cookstove pollution.

Is Household Air Pollution a Risk Factor for Eye Disease?

October 29, 2013 · 0 comments

Is Household Air Pollution a Risk Factor for Eye Disease? Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2013, 10(11)

Sheila K. West, et al.

In developing countries, household air pollution (HAP) resulting from the inefficient burning of coal and biomass (wood, charcoal, animal dung and crop residues) for cooking and heating has been linked to a number of negative health outcomes, mostly notably respiratory diseases and cancers. While ocular irritation has been associated with HAP, there are sparse data on adverse ocular outcomes that may result from acute and chronic exposures. We consider that there is suggestive evidence, and biological plausibility, to hypothesize that HAP is associated with some of the major blinding, and painful, eye conditions seen worldwide. Further research on this environmental risk factor for eye diseases is warranted.

Can Improved Cooking Stoves Work? The Nepal Chulo Experience

October 29, 2013 · 0 comments

Can Improved Cooking Stoves Work? The Nepal Chulo Experience, 2013.

D DWANDE, et al.

What motivates rural households to switch from older cooking methods to newer, more improved, ones? Improved cooking stoves (ICS) technology has demonstrated capacity to reduce health hazards from smoke inhalation, especially for mothers and young children in poor rural households. Additional advantages such as fuel economy are also possible. However, policies encouraging rural households to switch have met with little success. Initially enthusiastic acceptance has seldom led to long-term adoption. Possibly, faulty policy implementation is to blame, but it is likely that policymakers have not come to terms with the fact that adopting the ICS requires changing generations-old behavior.

This paper contributes in two ways, using a primary survey of rural households in Nepal. It first uses tests of independence to investigate sources of resistance to adopting the ICS by associating characteristics of the heads of households with their adoption decision. Association of self-reported health outcomes with adoption is also examined. Second, the paper sheds light on the role of economic benefits such as fuel economy, fuel costs, and government subsidy and their association with ICS adoption. Nepal is an appropriate setting for studying ICS adoption, for its plentiful wood supply has deemed the traditional stove or chulo the status quo cooking technology. Nepal’s government also has a history of experimenting with ICS adoption. Some lessons from the Nepal experience are useful for other countries as they seek to change the behavior of their rural households.

How Different are Social Business Firms from Social Entrepreneurial Firms

October 29, 2013 · 0 comments

How Different are Social Business Firms from Social Entrepreneurial Firms: A Comparison of Two Successful Cases, 2013.

Ezgi Yildirim Saatçi

“Social” preceded managerial terminologies are becoming popular and elevated. Social entrepreneurship, social business, social innovation, social change management and corporate social responsibility can be attributed as examples of popular buzzwords. As popular as they are, vindicate and precise distinguishing factors of these concepts are not commonly affirmed. In this paper, with an inclination to enlighten this vagueness, two successful cases are detailed i.e. Husk Power Systems and Grameen Shakti.

Husk Power Systems represent an example of the social entrepreneurial firm which has been chosen as a social entrepreneur of the year 2008 by Fortune Magazine. On the other hand, Grameen Shakti vegetates for social business which was founded and supported by Grameen Bank that has won Nobel peace prize jointly with its founder Prof. Muhammad Yunus in 2006.

In the analysis part “Strategic Business Canvas” with labels of value propositions, channels, customer segments, customer relationships, key partners, key resources, key activities, cost structure and revenue streams is used. Besides that social impact, innovation and strategy dimensions of organisations are also detailed and contrasted in the concluding remarks.

Scaling Adoption of Clean Cooking Solutions through Women’s Empowerment: A Resource Guide

October 21, 2013 · 0 comments

Scaling Adoption of Clean Cooking Solutions through Women’s Empowerment: A Resource Guide, 2013.

C Hart, G Smith. Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

This Resource Guide builds off of existing resources while compiling and analyzing a wide-variety of case studies, tools, and stories that outline practical, actionable methods and best practices for scaling adoption of clean cooking solutions through women’s empowerment. While several reports exist that analyze and investigate the importance of effectively integrating women into energy initiatives through gender mainstreaming practices, there has not yet been a practical guide on how to specifically integrate women
throughout the clean cooking sector.*

Research for the Resource Guide consisted of a careful examination of other sectors’ success in including women throughout their value chains to increase their bottom lines and impacts. Within this, the economic benefits of empowering women, and the related benefits for their families, communities, and national economies were also evaluated. Over 50 reports on gender, gender mainstreaming, women’s empowerment, and energy were collated, summarized, and analyzed. Additionally, training manuals, handbooks, and guides on relevant topics were extensively reviewed and compared to extract critical strategies, lessons, practices, and themes that can be applied in the clean cooking sector.

Feasibility intervention trial of two types of improved cookstoves in three resource-limited settings

October 21, 2013 · 0 comments

Trials. 2013 Oct 10;14(1):327.

Feasibility intervention trial of two types of improved cookstoves in three resource-limited settings: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Klasen E,  et al.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to biomass fuel smoke is one of the leading risk factors for disease burden worldwide. International campaigns are currently promoting the widespread adoption of improved cookstoves in resource-limited settings, yet little is known about the cultural and social barriers to successful improved cookstove adoption and how these barriers affect environmental exposures and health outcomes.

DESIGN: We plan to conduct a one-year crossover, feasibility intervention trial in three resource-limited settings (Kenya, Nepal and Peru). We will enroll 40 female primary cooks aged 20 to 49 years in each site (total 120).

METHODS: At baseline, we will collect information on sociodemographic characteristics and cooking practices and measure respiratory health and blood pressure for all participating women. An initial observational period of four months while households have their traditional, open-fire design cookstoves will take place prior to randomization. All participants will then be randomized to receive one of two types of improved, ventilated cookstoves with a chimney: a commercially-constructed cookstove (Envirofit G3300/G3355) and a locally-constructed cookstove. After four months of observation, participants will crossover and receive the other improved cookstove design for another four months. During each of the three four-month study periods, we will collect monthly information on self-reported respiratory symptoms, cooking practices, compliance with cookstove use (intervention periods only), and measure peak expiratory flow, forced expiratory volume at 1 second, exhaled carbon monoxide and blood pressure. We will also measure pulmonary function testing in the women participants and 24-hour kitchen particulate matter and carbon monoxide levels at least once per period.

DISCUSSION: Findings from this study will help us better understand the behavioral, biological, and environmental changes that occur with a cookstove intervention. If this trial indicates that reducing indoor air pollution is feasible and effective in resource-limited settings like Peru, Kenya and Nepal, trials and programs to modify the open burning of biomass fuels by installation of low-cost ventilated cookstoves could significantly reduce the burden of illness and death worldwide.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01686867.

Source of Biomass Cooking Fuel Determines Pulmonary Response to Household Air Pollution

October 21, 2013 · 0 comments

Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2013 Oct 8.

Source of Biomass Cooking Fuel Determines Pulmonary Response to Household Air Pollution.

Sussan TE, et al. Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Environmental Health Sciences, Baltimore, Maryland, United States; tsussan@jhsph.edu.

Abstract – Approximately 3 billion people, half the worldwide population, are exposed to extremely high concentrations of household air pollution (HAP) due to the burning of biomass fuels on inefficient cookstoves, accounting for 4 million annual deaths globally. Yet, our understanding of the pulmonary responses to HAP exposure and the underlying molecular and cellular events are limited.

The two most prevalent biomass fuels in India are wood and cow dung, and typical 24-h mean particulate matter (PM) concentrations in homes that use these fuels are 300-5,000 µg/m3. We dissected the mechanisms of pulmonary responses in mice after either acute or sub-chronic exposure to wood or cow dung PM collected from rural Indian homes during biomass cooking.

Acute exposures resulted in robust pro-inflammatory cytokine production, neutrophilc inflammation, airway resistance and hyper-responsiveness, all of which were significantly higher in mice exposed to PM from cow dung. On the contrary, sub-chronic exposures induced eosinophilic inflammation, PM-specific antibody responses, and alveolar destruction that was highest in wood PM-exposed mice. To understand the molecular pathways that trigger biomass PM-induced inflammation, we exposed TLR2, 3, 4, 5, and IL-1R deficient mice to PM, and found that IL-1R, TLR4 and TLR2 are the predominant receptors that elicit inflammatory responses via MyD88 in mice exposed to wood or cow dung PM.

In conclusion this study demonstrates that sub-chronic exposure to PM collected from households burning biomass fuel elicits a persistent pulmonary inflammation largely through activation of TLR and IL-1R pathways, which could increase the risk for chronic respiratory diseases.

Indoor Air Pollution and Health in Ghana: Self-Reported Exposure to Unprocessed Solid Fuel Smoke

October 21, 2013 · 0 comments

Ecohealth. 2013 Oct 18.

Indoor Air Pollution and Health in Ghana: Self-Reported Exposure to Unprocessed Solid Fuel Smoke.

Armah FA, Odoi JO, Luginaah I. Department of Environmental Science, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast , Ghana, farmah@uwo.ca.

Abstract – Most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana still depend extensively on unprocessed solid cooking fuels with many people exposed on a daily basis to harmful emissions and other health risks. In this study, using complementary log-log multivariate models, we estimated the health effects of exposure to smoke from unprocessed wood in four regions of Ghana while controlling for socio-environmental and socio-demographic factors. The results show that the distribution of self-reported exposure to smoke was highest among participants in the Northern region, rural dwellers, the 25-49 age groups, individuals with no education, and married women. As expected, exposure to smoke was higher in crowded households and in communities without basic social amenities. Region, residential locality, housing quality (type of roofing, floor and exterior materials), self-reported housing condition, and access to toilet facilities were associated with self-reported exposure to solid fuel smoke.

Participants living in urban areas were less likely (OR = 0.82, ρ ≤ 0.01) to be exposed to solid fuel smoke compared to their rural counterparts. An inverse relationship between self-reported housing condition and exposure to solid fuel smoke was observed and persisted even after adjustments were made for confounding variables in the demographic model. In Ghana, the cost and intermittent shortages of liquefied petroleum gas and other alternative fuel sources hold implications for the willingness of the poor to shift to their use. Thus, the poorest rural populations with nearly no cash income and electricity, but with access to wood and/or agricultural waste, are unlikely to move to clean fuels or use significantly improved stoves without large subsidies, which are usually not sustainable. However, there appears to be large populations between these extremes that can be targeted by efforts to introduce improved stoves.

Announcing a New Funding Opportunity from the Alliance

October 3, 2013 · 0 comments

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is pleased to announce the request for proposals (RFP) for second round of the Spark Fund investment. We will be accepting applications until October 18, 2013.

The Spark Fund, launched in 2012, aims to invest a total of $2 million in grant capital annually in enterprises with scalable approaches that have the potential to transform the sector through their success. Spark grants of up to $500K per enterprise target the specific capital and capacity development needs of enterprises across the value chain that have passed the proof of concept phase. In this round of Spark, the Alliance is prioritizing support of enterprises that demonstrate their commitment to cleaner and more efficient technologies that improve health and environmental outcomes, such the reduction of emissions of black carbon and short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs).

In order to reach more Alliance partners and to generate a pipeline of investable enterprises the Spark Fund has been split into two windows, allowing enterprises in both the venture and growth stages to apply for funding. The Spark Venture window will fund enterprises that have passed the proof of concept phase and are ready to ramp up sales or enterprises who have been in operation for some time but have yet to reach commercial viability. The Spark Growth window will fund enterprises in the clean cooking sector that already have robust sales and are on track to break even. The support for each window will target growth and capacity needs at the organization’s specific stage of development.

To apply for Spark II, please visit investment.cleancookstoves.org.

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