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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Dear Teddy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">The air quality targets are suspect – that is a problem. When one sees ‘bad air’ it is tempting to accept any alarming claim related to them.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">For example, what is the lowest safe concentration of SO2 in the air?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Nikhil pointed out (though many may not have understood the reference and the implication) that the concept of ‘no safe dose’ is conceptually flawed.
It is both unreasonable to say that <i>no</i> exposure to a ‘pollutant’ is acceptable, or that all exposure at any dose created a medical problem reducing lifespan (premature mortality).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">But there literally are regulations that hold that there is no safe dose for ozone, NO, SO2, PM2.5 from any source. The US-EPA got into a bit of
trouble trying to uphold all those claims while simultaneously lowering the maximum emissions for everyone in the country, and basically was about to ban farming, which makes quite a bit of dust. The intention was predicated on two ideas: that all PM2,5 is
equally toxic, and there is no safe lower limit for anything deemed to be a pollutant. Taken together this leads to silliness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">From a practical point of view, what should we do? We should see what the WHO has done. They do not say “you all have to bring your air quality up
to this standard…” They have interim standards which are quite easily met within a modern kitchen, and there are two of them which are ‘lower’ in the sense the requirement is not as strict.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">But you have not heard about them for a long time. Everyone is trying to ban solid fuels and promote expensive, clean-burning (so it is claimed)
liquid and gas fuels, except kerosene which Kirk has declared to be a smoky, polluting fuel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Well, why isn’t a developing country, the target of improved stove programmes, aiming to meet first the higher PM limits the WHO has published?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">></span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“ There is the burning of rubbish, cooking with inefficient solid fuel stoves,
millions of small diesel electricity generators, cars which have had their catalytic converters removed and petrochemical plants, all pushing pollutants into the air over the cities. “Compounds such as sulphur dioxide, benzene and carbon monoxide that have
not been a problem in western cities for decades may be a significant problem in African cities. We simply don’t know.”</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The burning of rubbish is a huge source of PM2.5. It goes without saying that there are massive PICs from that. Cars with aged engines are a far bigger problem than catalytic
converters being removed. CO is not a problem in ambient air anywhere in the world. Why is it mentioned? For ‘good measure’? Good grief.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Does the SO<sub>2</sub> level exceed 20 ppm? What is the H<sub>2</sub>S level? They don’t even report it, yet it is much more important to designers. It should all be SO<sub>2</sub>,
not H<sub>2</sub>S.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif">></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#383838">One thing I personally would like to advocate for at this point is that for those of us who manufacture biomass cookstoves,
especially charcoal and firewood burning ones, incorporating any aspects of advocating for woodfuel security (actual tree planting, seed and information distribution, social media awareness about forestry etc etc) is our responsibility for not only a future
source of fuel for our customers but also cleaner air and cooler cities.</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Darn tootin’. In the Green Paper and White Paper on energy security for Swaziland we managed to include ‘security of supply for users of biomass’. Instead of spending all the
money on petroleum supplies and storage, they should consider that biomass is an energy carrier with national importance and it is the responsibility of government to ensure the supply of it, not the manufacturers of stoves. The makers of LPG stoves don’t
have to get involved in the supply of the fuel. Why should stove artisans gave to plant trees?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The reason the trees don’t get planted around Nairobi or Lusaka is that the problems of poor people are not taken very seriously by most governments. The reason for deforestation
is not because trees won’t grow in Kenya or Zambia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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