[Stoves] SPAM: Re: NIH and Gates Foundation-Funded Research to Measure Health Benefits of Clean Cookstoves

Sun Nov 6 12:00:57 CST 2016

The Global Alliance for Chronic Disease (CACD), which is coordinating the study, appears to be looking at LPG as an alternative to wood and not in combination with wood as discussed in the “context” thread. There is no mention of protocols or comparisons among fuels. What is being used to represent “wood” smoke? 

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-contributes-global-effort-prevent-manage-lung-diseases

The study appears to be the result of a 2015 funding opportunity announcement and is a joint project of NIH, the Gates Foundation, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC), and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD). If I have the correct announcement LPG wasn’t specified in the original solicitation. Second hand cigarette smoke was. The solicitation was directed only to  universities. Emory University will conduct the study. 

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HL-16-012.html  

Are there studies which address the use of multiple fuels and the impact of improved cook stoves? 

Tom

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Traveller
Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2016 4:01 PM
To: adam at instove.org
Cc: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
Subject: SPAM: Re: [Stoves] NIH and Gates Foundation-Funded Research to Measure Health Benefits of Clean Cookstoves

Adam, list: 

There's more to this, going back to 21 September 2010 when HRC announced GACC at CGI and a press release announcing US support for clean cookstoves. I will send it to you and Tom separately in case you are interested. I have excerpted key parts below. 

NIH and CDC have spent some $42 m on cookstoves and health as of last FY; probably another $5m this FY just ended in Sept. See The United States' Commitment to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: Year Five Progress Report <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/09/247240.htm> .

I don't think new woodstove designs or dissemination have anything to do with that research so far or the new research proposed, which is about LPG users. 

As GACC notes, it is to 

"monitor the stove use and exposure to household air pollution of participating households in India, Rwanda, Guatemala, and Peru. The study will assess health outcomes, including birth weight, growth, and respiratory infections in children and respiratory function, blood pressure, and inflammation in adults."

Of course.

This is parasitic research, It is to make a health case for LPG because the health case against solid fuels has already been cooked up and blared on all media all over. This Community of Practice is irrelevant for this research, I am afraid. 

As for the Gateses, the money will probably go to the super-human beings at IHME who dish out deaths by assumptions every six months now, it seems. IHME has loads of Gates money, and of course they have WHO and the media lapping at their hands and feet. Everybody seems to be convinced by cite-o-logy. 

I wouldn't mind this if users did not want LPG and had to be persuaded. Which - as far as I can tell - is NOT the case. 

Yes, LPG emissions can have PM2.5. And yes, food emissions may also have PM2.5. Under the assumption that all PM2.5 are equally toxic, of course this global health folks will want to poke their noses in "participating households". They will enjoy the smells, I can guarantee. 

Remember, only USAID can put money in other countries for stove research and dissemination. And even there its hands are tied on procurement. 

Nikhil

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpts from Sept 21, 2010 press release: 

"Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

-National Institutes of Health (NIH) –$24.7 million

* NIH will commit about $24.7 million over five years to support ongoing research and research training projects, as well as new efforts to develop improved measuring devices, expand epidemiologic studies and conduct clinical trials. Ongoing projects include studies on the cookstove-related effects on pulmonary and cardiac diseases, the relationship between indoor air pollution and low-birth weight, and studies on the most effective ways to introduce and educate users on safety and the proper use of cookstoves. Training programs help prepare scientists in low- and middle-income countries to engage in related research and evaluation activities.

* NIH will also lead and co-sponsor an international state-of-science cookstoves conference in late Spring 2011. The Office of Global Health Affairs, within HHS’ Office of the Secretary, will contribute $100,000 to support this conference.

-Centers for Disease Control (CDC) – $1 million

As a founding member the CDC is committing to working closely with Alliance members and the global community to:

* Demonstrate the health benefits of implementing clean cookstove programs

* Better understand the relationship between human exposures and health outcomes

* Integrate cookstove implementation with other public health programs

* Evaluate cookstove program implementation

OVERVIEW

* Nearly 2 million premature deaths every year

............

--------------

On Sat, Nov 5, 2016 at 2:35 PM, <adam at instove.org <mailto:adam at instove.org> > wrote:

I have written to the Director of the NIH about this study, and have not heard back. Sometimes going straight to the top works, but not this time, apparently. 

What I would like to know is whether anyone in this community of practice was part of the discussions around this research. At the price tag, this is the single largest cookstove study that I've ever heard of. Anyone know of a larger one? 

Anyone know which stove models are going to be studied? 

Anyone know how the countries were selected (and Africa was somehow missed)? 

Is there any clarity on this? I feel pretty blindsided. I just spoke with a Gates Senior Program officer who retired last month. She reaffirmed what I'd heard before: "No way" that Gates can fund cookstoves. Yet this week...this. 

How did this happen? When will details come out? 

Anyone have any insights? Would love to be more informed, but feeling pretty blindsided now. Echoing Nikhil's disappointment if this historically-well-funded study by the largest US Foundation turns out to be a paean to LPG. 

Would prefer an LPG swan song (re: Nikhil's "wild goose chase").

Adam

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Stoves] NIH and Gates Foundation-Funded Research to
Measure Health Benefits of Clean Cookstoves

From: Traveller <miata98 at gmail.com <mailto:miata98 at gmail.com> >
Date: Fri, November 04, 2016 5:15 pm
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
<stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org <mailto:stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> >

Tom: 

This is to cook White House South Lawn meals for the researchers of "links" and "associations" that WHO and GACC can later call "causes". 

It is a "multi-country trial to investigate the correlation between home use of clean cookstoves using liquefied petroleum gas and its measurable health benefits, particularly for women and children."

Duh!! Why? Don't most cooks want to switch to LPG? This isn't like measuring - if at all possible - "health benefits" - whatever they may be - of newfangled biomass or coal stoves, and then marketing them for the health benefits. If users are going to switch to LPG or electricity anyway, I suppose NIH could get into the health damage due to LPG and electricity. After all, the Empire Promotion Agency has declared that GHGs "endanger" American public's health. 

Coming to think of it, maybe this is an ideological response to the anti-carbon nuts who claim LPG is to be avoided as a "fossil fuel" and "renewable biomass" be pursued exclusively, no matter its health and environmental effects (land, water and labor use, plus reliance on livestock for manure)? 

Only in America. How amusing and sad. 

This is a - what? Wild goose chase? Going up alleys known to be blind? 

Or confirming the obvious, but subjecting the control group to continue to suffer the health damage? 

What are they going to do with the LPG option offered to users who participate in the study? Take the cylinders and stoves back? 

Why even bother, since Kirk Smith says, LPG is "the fuel that could save millions of lives every year. • By definition!" (Environmental Health in India:What are the issues and what is India doing about it? <http://ehsdiv.sph.berkeley.edu/krsmith/Presentations/2016/SRU%20Oct%2016%20used.pdf>  Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai October 6, 2016.)

All I can say is that the glory of Gates in the Global Burden of Disease - Killing by Assumption - is enhanced by the US government. Keeps Washington (DC and State) busy. 

Nikhil

------- 

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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2016 11:14:30 -0700
From: "Tom Miles" <tmiles at trmiles.com <mailto:tmiles at trmiles.com> >
To: "'Discussion of biomass cooking stoves'"
        <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org <mailto:stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org> >
Subject: [Stoves] NIH and Gates Foundation-Funded Research to Measure
        Health Benefits of Clean Cookstoves
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