[Stoves] News (CCF 2017): Blame the rural poor for Delhi's ills

[Nikhil Desai]

Rural cooking smoke is making delhi air pollution worse
<http://www.thehealthsite.com/news/rural-cooking-smoke-is-making-delhi-air-pollution-worse-ag1017/>
TheHealthSite
26 October 2017.



Dr Guttikunda did a nice modeling study for HAP origins in India and has
also made impressive starts in urban air quality source apportionment
studies. Like all studies, however, assumptions rule and data are weak.

It takes considerable gall, then, by these editors at a pop health portal
to assert that "rural cooking smoke is making Delhi air pollution worse,"
and to claim the reason allegedly being "Over the past decade, research has
shown a dramatic drop in the amount of household air pollution coming from
inside Delhi."

Oh, HAP in Delhi declined. But what has that got to do with, um, the price
of eggs?

The editors acknowledge that Dr. Guttikunda's work of course shows
contribution from "industry, transport, dust, waste burning, seasonal crop
burning (outside Delhi), power plants, and diesel generator sets." But
still blame cooking and heating by the poor outside Delhi limits "These
emissions not only impact the air quality in rural areas but, ultimately,
impact the ambient air quality in Delhi as well, contributing up to on
average 10% of ambient air pollution and higher during the winter months
when space heating needs peak with temperature drops."

Not only is there no basis for this claim, concentrations do not translate
into proportionate increases; even if they did, there is no uniform
dose-response relationship for all peoples at all ages. (The IER and WHO
deceit). Air monitoring stations are not ubiquitous and the quality and
usability of data is dubious, as Dr Guttikunda or any other user of Delhi
air quality data would point out. These monitors do not capture many air
pollutants at the lower levels or where many poor are concentrated;
particulate and gaseous pathogens from urban wastes are a prime example.

Someone should just walk around within Delhi city limits from mid-December
to early February to see how much biomass smoke originates within Delhi
itself.

Only WHO and Kirk Smith get away with solid fuel PM2.5 emission rate per
minute and per MJd - neither of which can be controlled - and cook up DALYs
and aDALYs. It beggars imagination to assume that one source control - and
even that, uncontrollable use - will somehow magically improve air quality
for everybody.

Read Dr Guttikunda's March 2016 piece, What’s Polluting Delhi’s Air?
<http://www.urbanemissions.info/blog-pieces/whats-polluting-delhis-air/> and
a January 2017 piece How Delhi Knew What To Do To Fix Its Air Pollution in
1997 – But Didn’t Act <https://thewire.in/97529/delhi-pollution-1997-buses/>
.

Nikhil
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