[Stoves] MUST CHARCOAL BE A CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

[frank]

Dear Crispin and all,

Was going to pass by this (and probably should : )) but there was a 
point that bothered me.

Smoke is a bad thing anyway you look at it.

If the mosquito problem, or  rodents in the thatch roof  problem is 
solved using our smoke they will never move forward to a safer lifestyle 
- because problem solved.  These problems are not ours. Our problem is 
providing a smoke free environment, using less fuel, faster cooking  
etc. These mosquito and rodent problems are for someone else. Window 
screens, screened doors, different roofs - whatever they come up with.  
If people still want to use smoke let them (we can't stop them) but our 
goal is to provide a safe, smoke free environment with our stoves. Lets 
keep on track.

Frank





Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:

>Dear Otto
>
>You certainly have a way with words.
>
>Before criticising Kevin you should learn more about people in 'poor'
>countries. We in the oh-so-superior West think that smoke is a bad thing,
>that anyone with 'common sense' would know that.
>
>Read and learn:
>
>In Moto Grosso in Brazil, people are VERY aware that fires can create smoke
>and that it is very beneficial. This is diametric opposition to the Western
>medical view.  Without it the Nambiquara would die younger. Dying young from
>malaria or any of numerous other diseases carried by mosquitoes is not
>preferable to learning how to creatively use something as useful as biomass
>smoke.
>
>At night when the mozzies are particularly bad, people light a smoky fire
>using damp wood in the room (open fire). They lower a woven cloth over the
>doorway so the entire room fills up with smoke until it reaches the lowest
>edge of the cloth, then escapes outside. In Swaziland the same technology
>was traditionally used in their 'guqa na thandaza' beehive grass huts so it
>is probably widely known.
>
>The level of the bottom of the cloth is secured about 25mm vertically above
>the nose of the people sleeping on the floor. The whole room fills with
>smoke down to that level and kills the mosquitoes as they enter the room.
>The people sleeping on the floor are protected throughout the night or as
>long as the smoke lasts. You already knew this, right?
>
>If you brought a nice clean-burning gasifier with low CO into these homes,
>they would ask, "What foreign idiot invented a stove that can't make smoke!?
>Duh! Have they no common sense??"
>
>Replacing open indoor fires in Mozambique will definitely increase the
>incidence malaria and probably other diseases born by roof-dwelling insects.
>"He died young from malaria, but at least he didn't die of black carbon
>smoke inhalation as an old man!"
>
>Stoves function in a complex medical and environmental and economic matrix.
>Reducing fuel consumption reduces prices and puts people out of work - often
>the only paid work available. Food prices are depressed internationally
>because of vast US and EU dumping of subsidised production. Growing food is
>therefore not usually a viable option, though it would be the obvious
>alternative.
>
>People who buy fuel, and who buy less when they have an improved stove, will
>spend the money on other things - usually not things provided by the fuel
>industry workers.  
>
>Stove producers, often cited as providing employment, have other products
>they can sell and rapidly switch if their stove making business drops off.
>And there are not many of them compared with fuel suppliers.
>
>Stove and fuel promoting requires tough decisions made after considering
>many implications. Some efforts are misplaced.  Look at the efforts made to
>ban or suppress paraffin on the basis that it is a 'dangerous, smelly, smoky
>fuel' responsible for 'burning thousands to death'. Jet aircraft burn
>paraffin very cleanly. It is the STOVE not the FUEL! Crikey. Get a grip.
>
>Let's elevate the quality of discussion to the point where the content
>provides useful guidance.
>
>Regards
>Crispin
>
>
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>
>
>  
>

-- 
Frank Shields
Soil Control Lab
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Watsonville, CA  95076
(831) 724-5422 tel
(831) 724-3188 fax
frank at compostlab.com
www.compostlab.com