[Stoves] report with disappointing results from cleaner cookstoves

[Andrew Heggie]

On 12 December 2016 at 14:35, Xavier Brandao <xvr.brandao at gmail.com> wrote:

> Gentlemen and women,
> I think for the sake of clarity, we should really put this simply. And we
> should start interacting with the study authors.
> People on this list question the study methodology:
>
> Assumption 1: there is a lot more to health than pneumonia.

Xavier

That's right  it looks like about 30% of the 10 thousand  children in
the study suffered from malaria. The study implies there were too many
other sources of pollution from tobacco smoke, rubbish burning and
exposure in visited households such that any improvement the cleaner
stove offered may have been overwhelmed.

The lead author seems to be a veteran of work on respiratory problems
and the implication of smoke and was himself surprised by the result.

So Roger has offered some plausible reasons why no benefit was not
shown and the report implies much the same, it's the whole environment
the children are exposed to which is the major factor plus the people
are too poorly nourished to develop good immune responses and maintain
good sanitation.

The study appears to have been thorough, well planned and well funded,
I cannot imagine what it cost for the couple of years and the number
of children involved in the two groups.

AJH