[Stoves] Burning homes, children, and spewing smokes from stoves (Was Biochar Proposal - Lloyd Helferty)

Sat Oct 29 12:22:06 CDT 2016

Moderator: I changed the subject line. The post on Dr Mortimer's work was
as revealing as that earlier piece by a researcher at LBNL on stove
testing.
----------------------------
Wonderful. The Bollywood hero Big B - a spine TB survivor - opened this
conference by video - Amitabh Bachchan opens the International Conference
on Lung Health
<http://www.biospectrumindia.com/biospecindia/news/224467/amitabh-bachchan-international-conference-lung-health>
(Big
Spectrum 27 October 2016). Maybe he will inaugurate Tier 4.7561 cookstove
too.

Seriously, this study makes me question the usefulness of the term "clean
cookstoves" and the abuse of the concept of "risk factors" for "premature
mortality".

1. The press release says, "The study found that while the cookstoves were
well liked, required less fuel and were quicker to cook over, there was no
effect on the risk of pneumonia."

** Should we be thinking of different attributes, desired by the user, than
unit fuel consumption or so-called "energy efficiency", and "clean"
(howsoever that is measured)? If the user wishes for something that is
"quicker to cook over", and "clean" does not necessarily imply reduction in
the incidence of a major disease - here, under-5 pneumonia - what is that
stove designers pursue?

Put bluntly, do we ignore burn and fire risks in order to save trees? "Burn
the village in order to save it"??

"Dr Mortimer will demonstrate the very real dangers of cooking with an open
fire as miniaturised replica housing will be set alight."

Do we need a respiratory consultant to show us the light? By fire?

Why not junk the term "improved stove" or "efficient stove" or "advanced
biomass stove" and think of something that the user wants and increases
usability? Or, to repeat my mantra of "contextual design and promotion"?

After all, "safe", "convenient", "usable" are context-specific terms.

Are we in the business of saving children from burns or ... (I better keep
mum like a child should). **

2. Dr Mortimer is quoted, "Household air pollution kills more than 4
million people worldwide including half a million children who die from
pneumonia."

** This is as misleading as the nonsense in WHO's Burning Opportunity about
household cooking being a global health emergency. Doctors should know
better. Attribution is not causality. HAP DOES NOT KILL DIRECTLY. All one
can say is that for cohorts already dead, household air pollution is
implicated as one of the risk factors in allocating premature mortality due
to specific diseases. The exact numbers are cooked up, ranging from fine
pies to burnt bread. Death statistics are imprecise. Allocation of each
death to a single cause, and then allocating that cause to different risk
factors, is statistical jiggerypokery plain and simple. Read my posts on
EPA and Burnett et al. (2014) and the reference I posted earlier today to
Naeher et al. 2007. Take science seriously, please.

Abuse of science abounds. See American Academy of Pediatrics Links Global
Warming to the Health of Children
<https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/Global-Warming-Childrens-Health.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token>
(26
October 2015) and Global Climate Change and Children’s Health
<http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/136/5/992> (AAP, November
2015) plus the references cited therein - Zhang et al. 2007 Climate Change
and Disability-Adjusted Life Years
<http://search.proquest.com/openview/237ae8d4bf9a2d8938cc8f8ce39efc3a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar>
or
even at WHO webpage Climate change and human health - risks and responses.
Summary <http://www.who.int/globalchange/summary/en/index6.html> (seems to
have been last revised in 2003) and the reference there "McMichael, A.J. et
al. Climate Change. In: Comparative quantification of Health Risks", which
I reviewed four years ago and (proud to say) trashed.

The pathology of cite-o-logy passes as "science" these days. With all due
respect to all these proud researchers, I ask that they - and anybody else
who is interested - only go to read IPCC Working Group II report on health
and even IHME report on Global Burden of Disease from 2010 on. Serious
climate science or public health science has gone away from identifying
"climate change" - leave alone "anthropogenic climate change" - as a
measurable "risk factor", leave alone "cause" of mortality among children.
(Dr Karve's earlier post today is instructive.)

Science is politics. But there is political science of greater virtue -
rooted in philosophy.

Beware of academic pediatricians.  **

3. "Such a package will need to address issues including the burning of
rubbish—a common source of smoke exposure in our study—and tobacco smoking
which is an increasing problem even in the world's poorest and most
vulnerable populations".

** Precisely. Now let's have ISO IWA flamboyant fliers and fretters for a
fee do some testing of rubbish combustion. Sujoy was perceptive - Kolkata
slum-dwellers burning plastic. I have discussed plastics and rubbish
burning with folks who do meteorological modeling and burden of disease
studies. Suffice it to say EPA and WHO don't care to know anything relevant
and useful. **

Nikhil

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2016 18:39:52 -0400
> From: Lloyd Helferty <lhelferty at sympatico.ca>
> To: Entire Group <biocharstoves-95wgs at wiggiomail.com>
> Cc: Jay Anand <jayrash at gmail.com>, "Dr. A.K.Sherief"
>         <aksherief at gmail.com>,  Divine Ntiokam <ntiokam2 at gmail.com>,
> Discussion
>         of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] [biochar-stoves] Biochar Proposal
> Message-ID: <72f7d3f1-0b5d-5ee1-3f0c-d5a2be6dcc1d at sympatico.ca>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
>
> Thanks, Derick...
>
> This is Jay's proposal, however I did get a positive response from the
> Director for the "Center for e - Learning" at the *Kerala Agricultural
> University* (India), Dr. A.K. Sherief (CC'd), so it may be possible to
> do something. [?]
>
>   Note: Dr. Sherief had been looking to collaborate with Universities
> outside of India in *Tropical agriculture studies*.
>
> P.S. Members of the [Biochar Stoves] and the [Stoves] Lists (CC'd)
> might, however, be interested in the results of this new study as well:
>
> http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-10-cookstoves-reduction-child.html
>
>
>           October 26, 2016
>
>
>   Clean cookstoves lead to 40% reduction in child burns
>
> Initial results from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
> (LSTM)-led Cooking and Pneumonia Study (CAPS) in Malawi indicate that
> cooking with cleaner burning biomass-fuelled cookstoves reduced the risk
> of burns in children under the age of five by over 40% compared to
> traditional open fire cooking.
>
> The two year study was the largest of its kind anywhere in the world,
> with more than 10,000 children enrolled across randomised villages in
> Chikhwawa and Chilumba in Malawi. Half of the families involved were
> given two cleaner burning cookstoves to see if the new stoves, which can
> reduce emissions by up to 90%, would stop the children getting
> pneumonia, a major cause of death in this group. The study found that
> while the cookstoves were well liked, required less fuel and were
> quicker to cook over, there was no effect on the risk of pneumonia.
>
> ...  The results of our study suggest that by themselves, cleaner
> burning biomass-fuelled cookstoves are not sufficient to reduce the risk
> of pneumonia in the under 5s. They do, however, appear to be
> *substantially safer* by _reducing the risk of burns in young children_.
>
> *Provided by:*Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
> <http://medicalxpress.com/partners/liverpool-school-of-tropical-medicine/>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>    Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist
>    Principal, Biochar Consulting (Canada)
>    www.biochar-consulting.ca
>    System Leader and Sector Expert for the "Climate Smart" Platform
>    & Project Development Director, Energime University
>    http://energimeuniversity.org/
>    A member of The Energime Family of Companies
>    "Education, training, knowledge and empowerment for responsible
> environmental management and resource sustainability."
>    Not-for-profit Tax Exempt Status: 501(3C) DLN 17053330310044
>    lloydhelferty at energime.com
>    48 Suncrest Blvd, Thornhill, ON, Canada
>    905-707-8754
>    CELL: 647-886-8754
>    Skype: lloyd.helferty
> --
>    Earth Stewardship consultant, Passive Remediation Systems Ltd. (PRSI)
>    http://www.prsi.ca/
> --
>    Promotions Manager, Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN)
>     * LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND *
>    http://csayouthnetwork.wordpress.com
>    http://www.fao.org/climate-smart-agriculture
>    https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=6756248
> --
>    Founder, "Future Farming" group
>    http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Future-Farming-4815612
> --
>    Co-manager, Sustainable Agriculture Group
>    http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Sustainable-Agriculture-3866458
> --
>    Steering Committee coordinator, Canadian Biochar Initiative (CBI)
>    www.biochar.ca
>    http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1404717
> --
>    Chair, Community Sustainability (CoSWoG), A working group of Science
> for Peace
>    https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8413199
>    https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/coswog
> --
>    President, Co-founder & CBI Liaison, Biochar-Ontario
>    http://groups.google.com/group/biochar-ontario
>    http://www.meetup.com/biocharontario
>    http://www.biocharontario.ca
> --
>    Manager, Biochar Offsets Group:
>    http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2446475
> --
>    Advisory Committee Member, International Biochar Initiative (IBI)
>    www.biochar-international.org
>
> "Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things
> turn out."
>   -John Wooden
>
> On 2016-10-27 12:37 AM, derick calderon wrote:
> >
> > Lloyd I have been working on a nice small Project but I still haven?t
> > got it ready. I estimate about 4 months so I cannot assist you before
> > the 10th.
> >
> > Best Wishes
> >
> > Derick
> >
> > Enviado desde Correo <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986>
> > para Windows 10
> >
> > *De: *Lloyd Helferty <mailto:biocharstoves-95wgs at wiggiomail.com>
> > *Enviado: *mi?rcoles, 26 de octubre de 2016 08:12 p. m.
> > *Para: *biochar-stoves <mailto:biocharstoves-95wgs at wiggiomail.com>
> > *Asunto: *[biochar-stoves] Biochar Proposal
> >
> > Jay,
> >
> > The deadline is 10 November 2016.  Is that really enough time to put
> > together a full proposal?  What are you suggesting? Where?
> >
> > CC: biochar-stoves group
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> >
> >    Lloyd Helferty
> >
> > On 2016-10-25 6:41 AM, jay Anand wrote:
> >
> >
> >             Dear Lloyd and Divine,
> >
> >     Herewith I have shared the weblink specifically for biochar....
> >
> >     *http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/funding-opportunities/
> esrc-dfid-development-frontiers-research-fund-2016-
> 17/http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/funding-opportunities/
> greenhouse-gas-removal-from-the-atmosphere/
> >     - Biochar call, deadline is 10 November 2016.*
> >
> >     Can we participate together? Had already written to you on
> >     Linkedin account.
> >
> >     Look forward to get your opinion on same, many thanks!
> >
> >
> <snip>
>
> End of Stoves Digest, Vol 74, Issue 26
> **************************************
>
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