indoor air quality

Air Quality Feedback for Cookstoves

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 17:41:16 +0000

Air Quality Feedback for Cookstoves Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/28/2016 - 11:41

The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) Trial is led by Emory University with a consortium of university, research and implementing partners, with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Gates Foundation.

The overall aims of the HAPIN study are (1) using an intent-to-treat analysis, determine the effect of a randomized LPG stove and fuel intervention on health in four diverse LMIC populations using a common protocol; (2) determine the exposure-response relationships for HAP and health outcomes; and (3) determine relationships between LPG intervention and both targeted and exploratory biomarkers of exposure/health effects.

One key research aim of the HAPIN trial is to address stove use behavior: “Most stove intervention studies have failed to adequately investigate and address behaviors associated with concurrent use of polluting stoves (a practice known as “stacking”). The proposed efficacy study will integrate behavior change theory necessary to ensure consistent and sustained use of cleaner stoves, monitor stove use throughout the intervention, and intervene when appropriate to ensure compliance.”

Exclusive use of LPG stoves can lead to household air pollution reductions of 90% compared to open fires or traditional stoves. However, several previous studies have shown that households often continue to use their traditional stoves in tandem with clean-burning stoves, a behavior that significantly reduces the potentially realized improvements in health that would result from exclusive use of clean cooking technology. Consequently, there is clear justification for developing more effective approaches to encourage exclusive use of clean cooking.

Within the Mortenson Center, we are conducting an ancillary study supported by the UK AID and Unilever TRANSFORM opporutunity. We are working within a subsample of the intervention primary cooks in the Rwanda trial arm. Our ancillary study will contribute to this research aim through assessing assess whether dynamic sensors that provide feedback to users on household air pollution levels increase adoption of clean cooking behavior and discourage traditional stove use among primary cooks that have each been provided a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove.

The sensors being used in this study have been designed to provide immediate auditory and visual feedback to households when cooking area PM2.5 levels exceed pre-specified levels. The design process occurred after focus groups with Rwandan households.

We will test the effect of our dynamic behavior change sensors on household cooking behavior using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. Participating primary cooks will be selected from the intervention arm of the HAPIN trial in Rwanda. Our dynamic sensors will be installed in the LPG stoves provided to 100 participants in the HAPIN trial. These sensors will continuously monitor inhalable particulate air pollution (PM2.5) in the cooking area. PM2.5 data will be used to identify the frequency and duration of traditional stove use. In order to ensure that the PM2.5 monitor is able to identify traditional stove use, households will be screened for inclusion and only households which have the LPG stove located in the cooking area which contains their traditional stove will be enrolled.

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A Culturally-Appropriate Household Heating Energy Transition for the Navajo Nation

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 17:41:16 +0000

A Culturally-Appropriate Household Heating Energy Transition for the Navajo Nation Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/28/2015 - 11:41

Project Lead: Lupita Montoya

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ 65% of all Navajo households and almost 90% of those in rural areas rely on wood and coal to heat their homes, often using old, poorly ventilated and inefficient stoves. The negative health effects of this practice in the Navajo community could be greatly reduced by changing indoor heating behaviors and improving heating stove quality. Professor Montoya and her research team conducted three studies focused on the home heating needs of the Navajo Nation. First, they developed a framework to identify the most effective and suitable heating alternative for this community. Next, they utilized a representative residential wood stove to determine emission factors for four relevant solid fuels used by the Navajo. Lastly, they used a cellular oxidative stress model to assess the oxidative and inflammatory effects of the fine particulate matter from those emissions. Combined, these studies provided guidance for a current intervention in the Navajo Nation that includes an EPA-certified dual (wood/coal) stove designed specifically for this community. The team is now completing a pilot study assessing the first roll-out of these new stoves. The stove intervention will involve between 500 and 700 households and will take five years to complete. Read more.

Research by: Assistant Professor Lupita Montoya and graduate students Wyatt M. Champion (PhD 2017) and Naomi Chang (MS 2019)

A Pilot Study of VOC Exposure in Front Range Nail Salons

Studies have documented that workers in nail salons are exposed to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), including toluene, ethyl acetate, isopropyl acetate, methyl methacrylate and formaldehyde. These chemicals are known to cause skin and eye irritation, respiratory problems, allergies, neurological issues, and cancerl. Despite the serious risks associated with VOC exposure in the workplace, strong regulations do not currently exist. These exposure risks disproportionately affect minority groups and women who make up the majority of the industry's workforce. This group is comprised of manicurists, pedicurists, makeup artists, shampooers, and skin care specialists. Results from the pilot study indicate that ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ nail salons are a hazardous working environment, and that interventions are necessary to safeguard the health of underserved workers in this industry. Future work will focus on the development of intervention strategies to mitigate VOC exposure in nail salons including the use of novel, low-cost mitigation technologies. Read more.

Research by: Assistant Professor Lupita Montoya and graduate students Aaron Lamplugh, Feng Xiang and Janice Trinh

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Engineers deliver water filters, cookstoves to improve health in Rwanda

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 17:41:16 +0000

Engineers deliver water filters, cookstoves to improve health in Rwanda Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 09/20/2015 - 11:41

June 3, 2019

A large-scale program to deliver water filters and portable biomass-burning cookstoves to Rwandan homes reduced the prevalence of reported diarrhea and acute respiratory infection in children under 5 years old by 29% and 25%, respectively, according to new findings published today in the journal PLOS Medicine.

The results suggest that programmatic delivery of household water filters and improved cookstoves can provide a scalable interim solution for rural populations that lack access to safe drinking water and rely on traditional fires for cooking.

“Until now, there has been limited evidence of the effects when these products are delivered at scale,” said Evan Thomas, director of ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s Mortenson Center for Global Engineering & Resilience. “The study demonstrates the viability of bringing water filters and cookstoves to vulnerable households and will help inform future national initiatives.”

Unsafe drinking water and household air pollution are major causes of mortality around the world. An estimated 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, more than a third of whom rely primarily on open wells and untreated surface water that can be contaminated with human and animal feces.

Cooking indoors on traditional open-fire stoves with solid biomass fuels such as wood and charcoal has been linked with pneumonia, low birth weight and impaired development in children. Household air pollution is also associated with pulmonary and cardiovascular disease in adults. More than 80% of Rwandans rely on firewood as their primary fuel source.

“After neonatal disorders, pneumonia and diarrheal disease are the two leading killers of children under 5 years of age in Rwanda and much of sub-Saharan Africa,” said Professor Thomas Clasen of Emory University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who led the health impact study.

“The results of this randomized controlled trial provide strong evidence that effective interventions can be successfully delivered and embraced by a population at risk, even in remote rural settings.”

In the fall of 2014, over 101,000 households with nearly half a million people from the poorest economic quartile of Rwanda’s Western Province were selected to receive a Vestergaard Frandsen LifeStraw Family 2.0 table-top household water filter and an EcoZoom Dura high efficiency portable wood-burning cookstove together with community and household education and behavior change messaging. Each household was visited approximately every 4 months for a year following the distribution.

The program was financed and led by the social enterprise DelAgua Health (in partnership with the Rwanda Ministry of Health) and branded “Tubeho Neza,” which translates to “live well” in Kinyarwanda.

“DelAgua is delighted that the study has confirmed some of the health benefits of a well-designed large scale intervention as well as the acknowledged reduction in carbon emissions,” said DelAgua Chairman Neil McDougall. “Key to this success has been the ongoing education and support of Rwandan Community Health Workers (CHWs). Without CHW involvement, the intervention would not have demonstrated the same health and other benefits and as such their involvement is integral to the success of this and similar future projects,”

Among children under 5 years of age, the intervention reduced seven-day prevalence of diarrhea by 29% and acute respiratory infection by 25%, although intervention use decreased throughout the study period. Drinking water quality also improved in the intervention arm, but adult and child personal exposures to fine particulate matter remained unchanged despite increased outdoor cooking.

The reported respiratory-related health impacts were surprising, however. Other biomass-burning stove intervention studies found no effect on self-reported respiratory symptoms among cooks and/or children, leading to efforts to shift to cleaner fuels such as LPG.

Moreover, investigators in the Rwanda study reported no reduction in personal level exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from the stoves among adult cooks or children. They suggested that the impact on respiratory infection could be attributable in part to an immunological boost from experiencing fewer enteric infections.

Overall, the results suggest that the program was effective in improving drinking water quality, and reducing risk of diarrhea and respiratory illness among children under 5, pointing the way toward an interim solution for healthier living while cleaner cooking solutions are developed and scaled to reach the poorest.

"The intent was to address the leading causes of illness and death in Rwanda, respiratory disease and diarrhea, especially among the lowest income households," said co-author Dr. Jean de Dieu Ngirabega, who was the director general of Clinical and Health Services in Rwanda Ministry of Health and later the head of the Institute of HIV/AIDS, Disease Prevention and Control in Rwanda Biomedical Center during the course of the program.

"The program's success speaks in part to the hard work of our Community Health Workers, who trained households on the use of these technologies over several years. I am pleased that these results show these positive health benefits can be achieved at scale. It is an opportunity for low-income countries to meet the targets set out in Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3) for health."

“These results should have important policy implications in Rwanda and beyond. We see strong evidence that the intervention provides significant benefits that might continue to accrue if the program continues to be supported,” said Thomas, an associate professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Scienc e who designed and managed this program for DelAgua from 2012 through 2016. Thomas first started working in Rwanda in 2003 with Engineers Without Borders while studying at ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder.

ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder’s Mortenson Center supports 70 graduate students working in 24 countries globally on water, sanitation, energy and infrastructure. More than a dozen new international engineering programs have been added to the center’s portfolio in recent years, including partnerships in France, England, Australia, Ecuador and China, offering all interested students the opportunity of a global experience.

The new paper was co-authored by Corey Nagel from the University of Arkansas, Miles Kirby and Laura Zambrano of Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Ghislaine Rosa of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sanctus Musafri of the University of Rwanda and Dr. Jean de Dieu Ngirabega of the Rwanda Biomedical Center and East African Health Research Commission. ŷ��ڱ��Ƶ Boulder Professor Karl Linden and alumna Christina Barstow contributed to the program’s design and research.

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