[Stoves] News: Cooking pollution by propaganda - GACCing India

[Philip Lloyd]

Dear Crispin

 

“I am very interested that you think that CO from coal-fired cooking stoves is a measurable pollution problem anywhere.” Surely I have told you about the Qalabotja macroscale experiment? We had some assistance from the US DoE, who sent someone with a host of portable monitors for just about everything you could think of. The first evening, he visited a shack with an mbaula keeping the place warm. His CO monitor went off – the reading was 1600ppm and there was an alarm at, I think, 90ppm and another at 1000ppm.  He had been shown how to reset the 90ppm alarm, but no-one had thought to tell him how to reset the “Get-out-now” alarm. For 24h we had to put up with this damn thing shrieking, then the battery ran out.

 

Many of the shacks heated in this way showed these unbelievable CO levels. The inhabitants all complained of headaches and weakness in the morning. It almost seems you can adapt to high levels. 

 

Later we did a study on CO deaths in Soweto. In winter there would be two or three events per week when the whole family died in the night.  All we had to do was buy the Sowetan and read the death notices.

 

It IS a measurable problem!

 

Philip

 

From: Stoves [mailto:stoves-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
Sent: Friday, January 6, 2017 9:42 PM
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves; miata98 at gmail.com
Cc: anurag bhatnagar; Anil Rajvanshi
Subject: Re: [Stoves] News: Cooking pollution by propaganda - GACCing India

 

Dear Darpan

 

As you are working on a problem shared in focus by several other graduate students I would like to introduce you to three other teams working on the same issue. 

 

I will write separately on the contacts. 

 

I am very interested that you think that CO from coal-fired cooking stoves is a measurable pollution problem anywhere. It might be in the vicinity of the fire, but in the ambient air? That would be news. 

 

It should be obvious (but may not be) that if the coal were burned with extremely low PM and CO emissions, the perception and reality of using coal as a domestic fuel would be changed dramatically. For those who are interested in getting extremely poor people to reduce their emission of CO2 annually, a fuel-efficient coal stove would also be of interest. 

 

Thank you for noting and providing some numbers on the increase in coal use as a domestic fuel in a tropical country. There is often a broad assumption that hot countries use biomass exclusively for cooking.  You will no doubt be impressed that in some places the portion of people using coal for at least some of their cooking approaches 100% in winter.

 

Are you willing to share more specifics on the focus of your research?

 

Many thanks
Crispin

 

 

 

Dear All

 

This is my first post in the group. I am a PhD student working on the emission factor and source profile development from coal stoves.

 

I feel emissions from coal stoves is a major problem as described in the article shared in the thread above.

 

Coal, as a fuel is used widely for domestic cooking in many regions of India, which contributes significantly to the Carbon Monoxide (CO) and PM2.5 levels (both indoor and ambient). Chandrapur, Maharashtra (India) which has been identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as one of the most critically polluted cities of India (CPCB, 2016) is one such area where coal stoves have created problem to the air quality. 

 

According to the Environmental Performance Index Report, 2014 prepared by Yale University, the number of people using solid fuel as cooking fuel has increased greatly. The absolute number of people using solid fuels (biomass and coal) for home cooking and heating has roughly doubled from 333 to 646 million from 1989 to 2010 and this particular number is expected to rise substantially by the year 2020. According to Census, 2011 data more than 3.5 million people still use coal as their primary fuel for cooking. As per provincial reports of Census of India, population of Chandrapur city in 2011 was 3,21,036. The estimated use of Coal in Chandrapur is in approximately 11,769 households.

 

Problem of coal cook stoves in 21st century is reality!!

 

Darpan

 

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