[Stoves] WHO and 600,000 dead children

Wed Nov 7 16:52:43 CST 2018

Dear Andrew

>> The BBC covered this story last week claiming that living in Delhi during the annual burning of the straw (which they showed) was like smoking 40 cigarettes per day. I have already shown how that calculation is made: a cigarette exposes the smoker to 40-45 mg of PM2.5. The actual exposure for an adult living 24/7 in 160 micrograms/m^3 (bad days in Delhi) is 1/28th of a cigarette‎ per day.

>Crispin would you reprise that explanation and source again for me please.

A person breathes a very convenient 10 cubic metres of air a day. Approximately. If the mass concentration of PM 2.5 in that air is 160 micrograms per cubic metre, then a typical adult will inhale 160 c 10 micrograms of )PM2.5. That is their inhalation: 1600 µg.

A typical cigarette creates about 40 to 45 milligrams of PM2.5 (45,000 µg).  Sources very but the references I found were 40 to 45, with the latter being more common. So the cigarette-equivalence of that air (assuming they do not step indoors where air is probably cleaner than outside) is 1600/45,000 = 0.03555 cigarettes or 1/28.125. For a 60mm cigarette that would be 2.13mm of tobacco.

The claim for Delhi is “40 cigarettes per day” which is 1125 times more than the actual inhalation one might experience.  To reach the equivalent of 40 per day would require breathing air containing 180,000 µg/m3 for 24 hrs.

The highest Fresh Air recorded in Kyrgyzstan last winter was 11,300 µg/m3 (48 hr average). That is appallingly bad. Another home reached 6000 and another 7000. 180,000 is impossible.

If someone tries to convince you that “air pollution is much more toxic than cigarette smoke” they are challenging the EPA’s assessment that all PM2.5 is equally toxic. If we open that Pandora’s box, we will find that particles differ strongly in their toxicity and effects on human health. Finding that out would put all the classification of “air pollution” constituents in doubt.  So anyone saying, “This smoke is worse than that smoke” will be resisted.  It would threaten the whole enterprise. Suppose some smoke turned out not to be bad for you, almost beneficial. Stove cat, meet air pollution pigeons.

Regards

Crispin

Some while back I  posted a link to a graph of particulate pollution in UK and how ithe source from agriculture declined sharply when open field straw burning ceased. What intrigued me was how a pollution event that lasted only a few days affected the figures for a whole year. It also made me wonder if  a heavy exposure for a few days was better or worse than a continuous average exposure to the same amount?

Andrew

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