NASA Study says Black Carbon Deposits on Himalayan Ice Threaten Earth’s "Third Pole"

Black soot deposited on Tibetan glaciers has contributed significantly to the retreat of the world’s largest non-polar ice masses, according to new research by scientists from NASA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Soot absorbs incoming solar radiation and can speed glacial melting when deposited on snow in sufficient quantities. (Pic: To better understand the role that black soot has on glaciers, researchers trekked high into the Himalayas to collect ice cores that contain a record of soot deposition that spans back to the 1950s. Credit: Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Researchers led by Baiqing Xu of the Chinese Academy drilled and analyzed five ice cores from various locations across the Tibetan Plateau, looking for black carbon (a key component of soot) as well as organic carbon. The cores support the hypothesis that black soot amounts in the Himalayan glaciers correlate with black carbon emissions in Europe and South Asia.

Temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau -- sometimes called Earth's "third pole" -- have warmed by 0.3°C (0.5°F) per decade over the past 30 years, about twice the rate of observed global temperature increases. New field research and ongoing quantitative modeling suggests that soot's warming influence on Tibetan glaciers could rival that of greenhouse gases.

At Zuoqiupu glacier -- a bellwether site on the southern edge of the plateau and downwind from the Indian subcontinent -- black soot deposition increased by 30 percent between 1990 and 2003. The rise in soot levels at Zuoqiupu follows a dip that followed the enacting of clean air regulations in Europe in the 1970s.

Most soot in the region comes from diesel engines, coal-fired power plants, and outdoor cooking stoves. Many industrial processes produce both black carbon and organic carbon, but often in different proportions. Burning diesel fuel produces mainly black carbon, for example, while burning wood produces mainly organic carbon. Since black carbon is darker and absorbs more radiation, it’s thought to have a stronger warming effect than organic carbon.

"Tibet's glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate," said James Hansen, coauthor of the study and director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City. "Black soot is probably responsible for as much as half of the glacial melt, and greenhouse gases are responsible for the rest."

The study was published December 7th in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Fifty percent of the glaciers were retreating from 1950 to 1980 in the Tibetan region; that rose to 95 percent in the early 21st century," said Tandong Yao, director of the Chinese Academy's Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research. Some glaciers are retreating so quickly that they could disappear by mid-century if current trends continue, the researchers suggest.

Since melt water from Tibetan glaciers replenishes many of Asia’s major rivers -- including the Indus, Ganges, Yellow, and Brahmaputra -- such losses could have a profound impact on the billion people who rely on the rivers for fresh water. While rain and snow would still help replenish Asian rivers in the absence of glaciers, the change could hamper efforts to manage seasonal water resources by altering when fresh water supplies are available in areas already prone to water shortages.

The Improved Cook Stoves Stories...

The New Yorker is the most recent to take a serious look at the Cookstoves challenge. (Burkhard Bilger, Annals of Invention, “Hearth Surgery,” The New Yorker, December 21, 2009, p. 84)

Later, writing for his blog (The Perfect Stove – New Yorker Blog Post), Bilger puts out a quick look at the annals of the new stove:

Industrial giants like Bosch-Siemens, British Petroleum, and Philips Electronics have all tried their hand at building more expensive and sophisticated devices—stoves that cost between twenty and a hundred dollars retail, and are clean enough to run indoors. The results have been mixed.
The Germans, at Bosch-Siemens, developed an elegant oil-burning unit called the Protos, but it never really took off. (It’s as noisy as a blast torch, I was told). The British, at BP, spent millions designing a stove that runs on pellets, then promptly abandoned the project and sold the design to an Indian company.

The Dutch, at Philips, have just finished field tests of a stainless -stell fan stove, a prototype of which I tried out this fall. The Philips stove has a rechargeable fan in its base that works as a kind of bellows: it helps the fire light quickly and keeps it burning hot and clean. The stove that I used boiled a pot of water faster than my GE gas range, produced almost no smoke, and left only a thin residue of ash behind.

Even more promising is a stove designed by an Italian-American engineer named Nathaniel Mulcahy. The LuciaStove, as he calls it, is a gasifier made of beautifully injection-molded aluminum. It’s modular in design, so its most intricate parts can be packed flat and shipped inexpensively, while the rest can be manufactured locally...

Finally, Dean Still and the engineers at Aprovecho have joined with a start-up firm called Biolite to create a new generation of low-emissions stoves. Their design incorporates a thermoelectric fan designed by Jonathan Cedar and Alec Drummond, co-founders of BioLite. The fan runs without batteries or external electricity. Instead, it uses the heat from the fire to generate its own power. Cedar and the Aprovecho staff built the prototype in October and presented it for the first time at an international stove meeting in Bangkok, in November. The new stove reduces emissions by more than ninety per cent, compared to an open fire, and should cost about twenty dollars a unit to build. Best of all, it’s user-friendly: unlike other fan stoves, it has a side-feeding combustion chamber that’s easy to refuel. Aprovecho and BioLite hope to make it commercially available by 2011.

(Photos: Top, the Philips Stove. Middle: Nat Mulcahy prepares to add fuel to his Lucia stove. The copper pot can be set on top of the stove to function as a space heater. Bottom: The Biolite Stove

Global Economies pitch in with $350 Million Climate REDI Initiative

At United Nations’ Summit on climate change at Copenhagen, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Steven Chu unveiled Climate REDI - the Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative.

Climate REDI is a $350-million investment by major economies of the world towards increasing efficiencies in home appliances and developing renewable energy sources specifically wind and solar energy in developing world. The initiative will fund the deployment of “affordable home systems and LED lanterns to those without access to electricity,” according to a program fact sheet.

Reported Scientific American that Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment, India, welcomed the effort and called for his country to be one of the recipients. Such technology transfers with specific funding is what developing world is looking at as part of any Copenhagen agreement.

Writes Scientific American:

The 1970s, refrigerators in the U.S. have swelled from 18 cubic feet to 22 cubic feet. But, at the same time, the energy consumption of such gargantuan coolers has dropped by 75 percent, down to roughly 40 watts, saving countless tons of coal from being burned. And a five-year global program that reached all the refrigerators in the world with similar efficiency improvements might save 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide over that span, a significant contribution to combating climate change.

And that's exactly what U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Steven Chu unveiled here Monday at the United Nations' summit on climate change: the Climate Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI)—a $350-million investment by major economies, including $85 million from the U.S., to bring everything from efficient refrigerators to solar lanterns to the developing world.

"The energy savings from refrigerators is greater than all U.S. renewable energy generation—all the wind, solar thermal and solar photovoltaics —just the refrigerators," Chu said in a speech announcing the initiative, noting the refrigerators also cost less. "Energy efficiency is truly a case where you can have your cake and eat it too. [But] it was driven by standards; it didn't happen on its own."

In addition to coordinating global standards for efficient appliances, Climate REDI will also invest in further developing renewable energy sources—such as wind and solar power—in the developing world. The initiative will fund the deployment of "affordable home systems and LED lanterns to those without access to electricity," according to a program fact sheet.

"We want to help turn the lights on where people live but also in a way that helps solve climate change," Chu said, referring to the at least 1 billion people who lack access to electricity globally.

Jairam Ramesh, India's minister of the environment, welcomed the effort and called for his country to be one of the recipients. But he also noted that "Indian companies have been pioneers in low-cost pharmaceuticals now being widely used in Africa. I see no reason why Indian companies in the next five or six years with the help of American counterparts cannot emerge as world leaders in renewable energy technology.

Photo: U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Steven Chu.

INTERVIEW: BUSINESS FIGHTS POVERTY

On the eve of the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, the Business Innovation to Fight Climate Change and Poverty focussed on business innovations for the global South that help mitigate climate change and its impact on the poor. What types of innovative models are emerging? How can these be brought to scale? What is the role of governments and donors to encourage innovation?

The event was sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Growing Inclusive Markets initiative (GIM), and co-hosted by Business Fights Poverty, the Overseas Development Institute, the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Interview of Jeroen Blum, Deputy Director, Shell Foundation who take part in the panel discussion.

See what’s cooking in Shimoga...

In an interview with Deccan Herald, Shell Foundation Policy and Communications Manager, Simon Bishop talks about how Shell Foundation is tackling the issue of Indoor Air Pollution and creating awareness for it's reduction by running campaigns such as the current campaign on promoting ‘improved stoves’ in the Shimoga district of Karnataka .

Here are the excerpts from the interview...

How are emission reduction stoves useful?
It has been estimated that if we could get an improved stove into every one of the 500 million homes in the world that still cook on open fires and traditional stoves this would reduce CO2 emissions by more than Britain’s annual CO2 output. Put another way, an improved stove used regularly each day for one year, offsets a return London to New York flight. Stoves also reduce black carbon. We are aware that there is some disagreement between scientists on just how big a role black carbon plays in climate change. If, in time, it is proven to play a significant role, then, improved cook stoves which have an estimated impact of 55% reduction in smoke levels and up to 40% reduction in fuel usage could represent a highly effective way to tackle black carbon emissions.

So, how will the stoves help?
Since biomass is likely to remain the main source of cooking fuel for a large majority of rural Indian households for many years to come, the main aim of the improved stoves is to retain the traditional style of cooking - using traditional fuels like wood - but reduce fuel use and the health impacts from Indoor Air Pollution.

The mode of use of both the Selco and Envirofit stoves strikes a close similarity to that of a traditional cook stove from the cooking methods to the placing of fuel in the stoves. None of these stoves require prior installation, and maintenance mainly consists of clearing out the ashes from the cook stove.

Also, there is an ongoing (for the last two years) Monitoring and Evaluation Assessment of Improved Stove Projects in South India conducted by Berkeley Air, California and being implemented on ground by Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai which indicates significant reductions in carbon monoxide and particulate matters due to the use of alternative improved stove models by households in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Shell Foundation: Getting 2 Billion People to Adopt Improved Stoves Needs an Enterprise Approach

The issues in changing over 2.6 billion people worldwide from traditional fuel stove to improved biomass cooking stoves lie as much in driving home the health message as ensuring that the process meets the demands of business viability, demographic reach, appropriate pricing and financing options, Shell Foundation India Country Head Anuradha Bhavnani said at the Technical Consultation on 'Advanced Cook Stoves for Improved Health of Women and Children' organized by USAID here today.

Outlining the learnings from the ongoing Indoor Air Pollution awareness campaign in Shimoga District of Karnataka, Ms Bhavnani said the four cardinal requirements are that, First, stoves that meet standards of reduced emission; Second, price points that are viable for business scaling; third, financing options; and fourth, the participation of the government at the grassroot level to gve scale to the awareness programs. Jeoren Blum, Deputy Director, Shell Foundation, presided over the session on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty.

Shell Foundation has undertaken a comprehensive program of engagement in 111 villages in Shimoga and is partnering with the district and state administration to drive awareness on the third largest killer in the country, Indoor Air Pollution (IAP).

“The Shell Foundation sees this awareness campaign as one of the most exciting and important developments in its Breathing Space program, which aims to achieve a significant long term reduction in IAP by designing so-called improved stoves that are more emission and fuel efficient - and by developing a sustainable way to get them in to people’s homes,” said Mr Jeroen Blum, Deputy Director, Shell Foundation.
Shell Foundation has received support from the Chief Minister’s office on its proposal to appoint an inter-ministerial committee with participation of IAP experts, stove manufacturers, MFIs, NGOs and others to develop a blueprint for State action. The State Government has positively viewed Shell Foundation’s proposal to adopt a mission of turning Districts with high firewood usage into “IAP Free Districts”, starting with Shimoga as a model District. The campaign currently in operation in the Shimoga district in Karnataka has received the support of relevant officials of the State and District administration.

The campaign in Shimoga district is an initiative by Shell Foundation to focus on promoting the internationally-recognised, most effective and sustainable method for tackling IAP, namely ‘improved stoves’, which significantly reduce emissions and fuel use. At present, the program is taking the message to 111 villages in Shimoga district through a combination of on-ground static and interactive activities. The high intensity campaign is being conducted over a 90-day time period between October and January 2009.

The campaign is also being reached to the people through active support from the District Administration including the health and education infrastructure, village level health workers and demonstration of campaign for Gram Panchayats.

The current initiative follows a pilot campaign on IAP conducted by Shell Foundation in 2008 in the districts of Raichur, Koppal, Udupi and Mysore, which indicated that although small changes like ‘keeping the kitchen windows open’, ‘installing a chimney or ventilator’, ‘keeping children
away from smoke‘ or ‘use of dry firewood’ can make a big difference in reducing IAP, the final focus needs to be on motivating people to change behaviour, with a focus on improved stoves.
Shell Foundation has also developed the concept of ‘standardization of stoves’ to be able to directly connect the campaign with the improved stoves. The mark called ‘Symbol of trust’ (see top of release for symbol) will appear on the packaging and marketing materials of all improved stove manufacturers i.e. those that have passed rigorous tests on minimum emissions and fuel reduction standards as laid down by international bodies. At the local level, this mark will double-up as a ‘standards mark’ to indicate an improved stove that will reduce smoke levels by as much as 55%, while using at least 40% less fuel.
The campaign is being taken to the doorstep using the concept of Sustained Activist Householder who is an active local village lady visiting various households and informing the villagers about the problems of IAP and its solution – use of improved stoves standardised with the ‘mark of trust’ through flipchart stories and distribution of leaflets. Smoke-less Stove demos being conducted at weekly markets will introduce villagers to the benefits and effective use of stoves by providing them with a first-hand experience of using the stove.
At present, the campaign by Shell Foundation will highlight to the villagers the presence of independent improved stove manufacturers like Envirofit and Selco who have launched a range of clean burning biomass cookstoves in the country designed by teams of globally recognized scientists and engineers.

India's National Cookstove Initiative an Opportunity For US to Contribute to Tackling IAP

India’s “National Biomass Cook Stove Initiative” is an exciting opportunity for the U.S. to contribute to India’s longstanding efforts to tackle the problem of indoor air pollution in India while enhancing the lives of all Indians, says US Ambassdor to India Timothy J Roemer. He was speaking at a technical consultation on 'Advanced Cook Stoves for Improved Health of Women and Children' in New Delhi organized by USAID to address health and environment outcomes associated with use of traditional open fire cook stoves.

(Picture: Ambassador Timothy Roemer and Indian Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Mr. Farooq Abdullah)

The event saw participation from eminent academicians, business and government officials and experts from civil society & development sector. The discussions focused around the potential and opportunities for moving forward with improved, cleaner and healthier cook stoves in India.

Speaking on the event, US Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer said:

“The United States of America welcomes the bold announcement of India’s ‘National Biomass Cook Stoves Initiative’ – quite likely the largest initiative of its kind in the world.

India’s “National Biomass Cook Stove Initiative” is an exciting opportunity for the U.S. to contribute to India’s longstanding efforts to tackle the problem of indoor air pollution in India while enhancing the lives of all Indians. Working together, we can make efficient and healthy cook stoves accessible to all.

Sharing a meal unites families, friends, and communities every day in every corner of the world. And yet, in so many parts of the world and in so many communities in India, the simple act of preparing a traditional meal and nourishing a family can expose the household and neighborhood to increased levels of pollution.

Because women are usually responsible for food preparation, the reality is that the majority of those exposed to indoor air pollution are women – and the young children who spend their days with their mothers around the cook stove. Yet, women often play a critical decision making role with respect to household energy resources. And when women control decisions related to the kitchen and cooking, it can lead to investment in alternatives, like improved cook stoves which not only benefit their families, but their communities.

Every year in India, exposure to smoke from solid fuels contributes to nearly
440,000 deaths in children under five years and more than 34,000 deaths from chronic respiratory disease in women. That is close to half a million women and children.

The saddest part of this story is that these deaths are largely preventable and the effects of indoor air pollution on our communities and planet can be ameliorated with the efforts of those of you represented here today.

I have long been very deeply concerned about the harmful effects of indoor air pollution on the health and wellbeing of men, women, and children, as well as on our environment. It is a well documented fact that open cook stoves without chimneys, or chulhas, as they are called in India, are a major contributor to indoor air pollution throughout the world.

This is not only an Indian problem, but as a global power, India can lead the way to a solution for her own citizens and others at risk around the world.

Since my arrival in India, I’ve looked for opportunities in all areas where our two great nations can come together. Today is one of the many, I hope, results of that search. We’ve got some of the best minds currently working on improved cook stoves here in this room today and I urge you to work together to find a way forward for the health of our communities and our planet.

Today’s conference brings us one step closer to developing safe and affordable cook stoves that honor the cooking traditions so important to families throughout India while protecting the health and safety of these families and our environment."
Photo Courtesy: US Embassy Photo Gallery

India puts Improved Biomass Cook Stoves on the National Agenda

The Government of India today pushed the button on an aggressive cookstoves program. The Times of India reported that Once completely rolled out the full-scale programme would target 135-140 million households nationwide that still depend on burning wood, twigs, leaves and agriculture residues for heating and cooking needs.

(LEFT: The Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah addressing at the Launch of ‘National Biomass Cookstoves Initiative’ in New Delhi on December 02, 2009)

Following is the full text of the Press Release on Launching of the ‘National Biomass Cookstove Initiative’ on 2nd December 2009 at New Delhi

A New Initiative on Improved Biomass Cookstoves

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is launching a new initiative on biomass cookstoves, with the primary aim of enhancing the availability of clean and efficient energy for the energy deficient and poorer sections of our society.

A large section of our country’s population – 75% of the rural households and 22% of the urban households, according to the National Sample Survey’s 61st survey -- still uses biomass for its cooking needs. An estimated 80% of the residential energy in India comes from biomass, much of it burnt in traditional chulhas. The adverse health and socio-economic implications of this form of energy supply are enormous, with women and children at particular risk. The burden of biomass fuel collection and processing for cooking also falls mainly upon women and children (mainly girls), who spend significant time gathering fuel resources every day.

Therefore, providing a clean cooking energy option for these households will yield enormous gains in terms of health and socio-economic welfare of the weakest and the most vulnerable sections of society. At the same time, the cleaner combustion in these devices will greatly reduce the products of incomplete combustion which are greenhouse pollutants, thus helping combat climate change.

This initiative of MNRE is envisaged to be structured differently from the earlier National Programme on Improved Chulhas, although it will build on the several successes of that programme while also drawing lessons from the experience gained from its implementation.

The starting point of the current exercise is the user. The solution on offer should, first and foremost, be easy to use and maintain and conform to local cooking habits across the country. Its adoption must make economic sense to the household. The programme is conceived not as a handout to poorer households, but rather as an economically sustainable business solution. As the Prime Minister of India has often said, we need to make the poor of this country bankable.

This new initiative is also based on the recognition that cookstove technology has improved considerably in the past few years. But further advances are still possible and, indeed essential. Our aim is to achieve quality of energy services from cookstoves comparable to that from other clean energy sources such as LPG.

MNRE has held several brainstorming sessions and consultations over the past few months with a range of stakeholders and experts from civil society, academia, business, and government to develop an understanding of current activities and future potential of such a programme. The Prime Minister’s Office has been closely associated with these deliberations.

Under this Initiative a series of pilot-scale projects are envisaged using several existing commercially-available and better cookstoves and different grades of processed biomass fuels. This will help in exploring a range of technology deployment, biomass processing, and delivery models leveraging public-private partnerships.

At the same time, it will set in motion a series of activities that are designed to develop the next-generation of household cookstoves, biomass-processing technologies, and deployment models. This may include an innovative global contest to develop combustion units with high thermal efficiency and low pollution characteristics and, in parallel, appropriate biomass-processing devices The Initiative will aim for a significant enhancement of technical capacity in the country by setting up state-of-the-art testing, certification and monitoring facilities and strengthening R&D programmes in key technical institutions. An independent monitoring and evaluation component is envisaged to assess the activities and fine-tune them on an ongoing basis. And, last but not the least, it will welcome and promote participation by civil society and private actors to make it a true public-private partnership.

MNRE also believes that the technologies and delivery models that will be developed through this Initiative will be useful for other developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America whose populations also suffer from health and other problems related to biomass use in household cooking. Therefore success of this Initiative could well have a transformative impact not only for our own citizens but also for the energy poor in other developing countries.

Lancet says Putting Out 150 Million Stoves in India Over 10 years Will Save 2 Million Lives

If India were to put out 150 million improved biomass stoves each year for a decade, by 2020, the total number of averted premature deaths from acute lower respiratory infections will have reached about 240 000 children aged younger than 5 years, and more than 1·8 million premature adult deaths from ischaemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will have been averted, so says a Lancet paper, one of a series of six.

The paper is a part of a Health and Climate Change series titled "Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: household energy" and is co-authored by Paul Wilkinson, Kirk R Smith, Michael Davies, Heather Adair, Ben G Armstrong, Mark Barrett, Nigel Bruce, Andy Haines, Ian Hamilton, Tadj Oreszczyn, Ian Ridley, Cathryn Tonne and Zaid Chalabi.

The paper states: "For India, we specified a 10-year programme to introduce 150 million low-emissions household cook-stoves. This scenario was chosen because of the major public health burden that is associated with indoor air pollution from inefficient burning of biomass fuels in India and in many other low-income countries. It is also consistent with proposals that are being considered in India. The cost would be less than $50 every 5 years, perhaps paid partly through government subsidy and partly by the households because of fuel cost savings and time savings in harvesting of fuel.
The scenario used here draws lessons from the previous Indian national stove programme, the National Programme for Improved Chullhas,13 which, like the major national programme in China,14 was initiated in the early 1980s and focused mainly on increasing fuel efficiency to assist with rural welfare and, to a lesser extent, protect forests. Secondary emphasis was on reduction of smoke exposure through use of chimneys, and there was no consideration of outdoor pollution or climate. However, there have been major changes in our understanding about the value of and technology for emissions reductions and in world conditions that have modified the landscape for improved biomass stove programmes."

"The changes in health related to traditional fuel use patterns are much better established than they were previously, with hundreds of reports documenting the associated health outcomes. An estimated 400 000 pre-mature deaths per year in India are caused by biomass-fuel use in households.9 The international price of liquified petroleum gas, which is the major alternative clean household fuel, will probably continue to increase faster than will rural incomes, making the transition to modern fuels difficult and, if subsidised by government,increasingly expensive for national budgets. This situation adds to the attraction of deployment of advanced biomass stoves that provide high performance, use local renewable resources, and relieve the government of the cost of fuel subsidies. Climate change is a major threat and household fuel combustion is an important contributor, especially to black carbon, with high greenhouse effects per unit energy delivered compared with many other human uses of energy, depending on the relative weighting of the climate-active pollutants emitted."


The paper argues that if 15 million stoves are given out each year, at the end of the decade, 87% of Indian households would have clean combustion, either through graduating on their own to clean fuels or receiving advanced biomass stoves as part of the intervention.

By 2020, the total number of averted premature deaths from acute lower respiratory infections will have reached about 240 000 children aged younger than 5 years, and more than 1·8 million premature adult deaths from ischaemic heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will have been averted.
The paper claims that overall, the national burden of disease in 2020 from these three major diseases would be about a sixth lower than it would have been without the stove programme—which is equivalent to elimination of nearly half the entire cancer burden in India in 2020.

Government of Karnataka endorses Shell Foundation Campaign on Indoor Air Pollution

Shell Foundation awareness campaign launched in 111 Villages in Shimoga district

• Combined action with District Administration underway
• Inter-ministerial committee mooted to plan for Indoor Air Pollution Free State
• Toxic emissions and smoke from cooking claims 400,000 lives in India every year
• In developing countries this makes Indoor Air Pollution the most lethal killer after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe water and sanitation. 59% of these deaths are women.

Shell Foundation has undertaken a comprehensive program of engagement in 111 villages in Shimoga and is partnering with the district and state administration to drive awareness on the third largest killer in the country, Indoor Air Pollution (IAP).

Shell Foundation has received support from the Chief Minister’s office on its proposal to appoint an inter-ministerial committee with participation of IAP experts, stove manufacturers, MFIs, NGOs and others to develop a blueprint for State action. The State Government has positively viewed Shell Foundation’s proposal to adopt a mission of turning Districts with high firewood usage into “IAP Free Districts”, starting with Shimoga as a model District.

The campaign currently in operation in the Shimoga district in Karnataka has received the support of relevant officials of the State and District administration namely Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj; Minister of Social Welfare; Deputy Commissioner, Shimoga District and CEO Zilla Parishad, Shimoga District. All the concerned departments are now working together with the Shell Foundation team to find ways to reach the message of reducing smoke in the kitchen across the district and eventually the state.

The campaign in Shimoga district is an initiative by Shell Foundation to focus on promoting the internationally-recognised, most effective and sustainable method for tackling IAP, namely ‘improved stoves’, which significantly reduce emissions and fuel use. At present, the program is taking the message to 111 villages in Shimoga district through a combination of on-ground static and interactive activities. The high intensity campaign is being conducted over a 90-day time period between October and January 2009.

The campaign is also being reached to the people through active support from the District Administration including the health and education infrastructure, village level health workers and demonstration of campaign for Gram Panchayats.

The current initiative follows a pilot campaign on IAP conducted by Shell Foundation in 2008 in the districts of Raichur, Koppal, Udupi and Mysore, which indicated that although small changes like ‘keeping the kitchen windows open’, ‘installing a chimney or ventilator’, ‘keeping children
away from smoke‘ or ‘use of dry firewood’ can make a big difference in reducing IAP, the final focus needs to be on motivating people to change behaviour, with a focus on improved stoves.

At a press conference on November 19, 2009 in Shimoga, Simon Bishop, Policy and Communications Manager for the Shell Foundation said that, "We are very pleased that the Government of Karnataka has endorsed the campaign on creating awareness on Indoor Air Pollution. Through this initiative in Shimoga we hope the activities we conduct will be a showcase for a campaign that we would eventually like to expand across southern India. Our basic concern is that women should not be dying as a result of cooking meals for their families. If we can convince families to adopt improved cook stoves we will begin to prevent this from happening."

One person around the world dies every 20 seconds from the cumulative effects of IAP, resulting in approximately 1.5 million deaths per year, thus making IAP the fourth biggest killer in the world’s poorest countries, after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe water and sanitation. (Source: World Health Organization).



Shell Foundation has also developed the concept of ‘standardization of stoves’ to be able to directly connect the campaign with the improved stoves. The mark called ‘Symbol of trust’ (see top of release for symbol) will appear on the packaging and marketing materials of all improved stove manufacturers i.e. those that have passed rigorous tests on minimum emissions and fuel reduction standards as laid down by international bodies. At the local level, this mark will double-up as a ‘standards mark’ to indicate an improved stove that will reduce smoke levels by as much as 55%, while using at least 40% less fuel.
111 villages, with populations larger than 2000 people, will be covered in this campaign in the Shimoga district across its seven taluks namely Bhadravathi, Sagar, Sorab, Shimoga, Theerthahalli, Shikaripur and Hosanagara.
The campaign running through a stretch of 90 days includes an outdoor campaign that communicates the message through posters and wall paintings. The Village to Village campaign involves engaging local villagers through neighbourhood gatherings hosting a stream of mobile van campaigns, flip chart stories, street plays, interactive games and contests to give people a sense of involvement.
The campaign is being taken to the doorstep using the concept of Sustained Activist Householder who is an active local village lady visiting various households and informing the villagers about the problems of IAP and its solution – use of improved stoves standardised with the ‘mark of trust’ through flipchart stories and distribution of leaflets. Smoke-less Stove demos being conducted at weekly markets will introduce villagers to the benefits and effective use of stoves by providing them with a first-hand experience of using the stove.
At present, the campaign by Shell Foundation will highlight to the villagers the presence of independent improved stove manufacturers like Envirofit and Selco who have launched a range of clean burning biomass cookstoves in the country designed by teams of globally recognized scientists and engineers.
The Shell Foundation sees this awareness campaign as one of the most exciting and important developments in its Breathing Space program, which aims to achieve a significant long term reduction in IAP by designing so-called improved stoves that are more emission and fuel efficient - and by developing a sustainable way to get them in to people’s homes.

Shell Foundation Launches Awareness Campaign To Combat Indoor Air Pollution In Shimoga District

Shell Foundation today ( 10 Oct 2009) announced the launch of a campaign to actively promote measures that reduce Indoor Air Pollution thereby saving and improving lives and reducing CO2 emissions. In an effort to expand reach of campaign, Shell Foundation requested support of District Administration, Zilla Parishad and respective departments of the State Government.

All the concerned departments are now working together with the Shell Foundation team to find ways to reach the message of reducing smoke in the kitchen across the entire district.

The program is taking the message to 111 villages in Shimoga district through a combination of on-ground static and interactive activities like display of wall posters and wall paintings, mobile van campaigns and neighbourhood gatherings featuring flipchart stories, interactive games, street plays, stove demonstrations and a sustained activist householder (SAH) program. The high intensity campaign will be conducted over 90-day time period between October and December 2009.

The campaign is being reached to the people through active support from District Administration including the health and education infrastructure, village level health workers and demonstration of campaign for Gram Panchayats.

The campaign in Shimoga district is an initiative by Shell Foundation to focus on promoting the internationally-recognised, most effective and sustainable method for tackling IAP, namely ‘improved stoves’ that significantly reduce emissions and fuel use.

At a press conference on November 3, 2009 in Shimoga, Anuradha Bhavnani, Country Head for the Shell Foundation said that, "We are very pleased to be launching this new initiative in Shimoga and hope the activities we conduct will be a showcase for a campaign that we would eventually like to expand across southern India. Our basic concern is that women should not be dying as a result of cooking meals for their families. If we can convince families to adopt improved cook stoves we will begin to prevent this from happening."

Extending support towards the campaign, Mr. Hemachandra, Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchyat, Shimoga said that, “The issue of Indoor Air Pollution is quite prominent in the rural areas of Shimoga. Although, we have been constantly taking measures to reduce its impact, some of the rural population is yet unaware of its harmful effects. By creating awareness among the people, this village-to-village campaign by Shell Foundation will help strengthen efforts to deal with the issue of Indoor Air Pollution.”


Globally, reliance on solid fuels is one of the 10 most important threats to public health. One person around the world dies every 20 seconds from the cumulative effects of IAP, resulting in approximately 1.5 million deaths per year, thus making IAP the world’s fourth biggest killer after malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of safe water and sanitation. (Source: World Health Organization 2002).
Indoor Air Pollution in India results from burning biomass (like wood, crop waste and animal dung) during cooking in the home. The toxic emissions and smoke from this cooking claims as many as 400,000 lives in India every year, most of whom are women and children due to their increased exposure in the home,

Shell Foundation has also developed the concept of ‘standardization of stoves’ to be able to directly connect the campaign with the improved stoves. The mark called ‘Symbol of trust’ will appear on the packaging and marketing materials of all improved stove manufacturers i.e. those that have passed rigorous tests on minimum emissions and fuel reduction standards as laid down by international bodies. At the local level, this mark will double-up as a ‘standards mark’ to indicate an improved stove that will reduce smoke levels by as much as 55%, while using 40% less fuel.

111 villages, with populations larger than 2000 people, will be covered in this campaign in the Shimoga district across its seven taluks namely Bhadravathi, Sagar, Sorab, Shimoga, Theerthahalli, Shikaripur and Hosanagara.

The campaign running through a stretch of 90 days includes an outdoor campaign that communicates the message through posters and wall paintings. The Village to Village campaign involves engaging local villagers through neighbourhood gatherings hosting a stream of mobile van campaigns, flip chart stories, street plays, interactive games and contests to give people a sense of involvement.

The campaign is being taken to the doorstep using the concept of Sustained Activist Householder who is an active local village lady visiting various households and informing the villagers about the problems of IAP and its solution – use of improved stoves standardised with the ‘mark of trust’ through flipchart stories and distribution of leaflets. Smokeless-Stove demos being conducted at weekly markets will introduce villagers to the benefits and effective use of stoves by providing them with a first-hand experience of using the stove.
At present, the campaign by Shell Foundation will highlight to the villagers the presence of independent improved stove manufacturers like Envirofit and Selco who have launched a range of clean burning biomass cookstoves in the country designed by teams of globally recognized scientists and engineers.
The Shell Foundation sees this awareness campaign as one of the most exciting and important developments in its fight against IAP.

The Black Carbon Connection: How real the challenge?

One of the major, albeit contentious, connections has been between black carbon and climate change with an equal weightage to the belief that black carbon does, or not, have a precipitous impact. Where some have seen hope in the ability to tackle black carbon better and faster, other scientists are sceptical that it may just take our eyes of what really needs to be done on climate change, namely bring down CO2 emissions.

There has been much discussion in the Indian press on a discussion paper put out by the Ministry of Environment that argued that global warming cannot be simply assessed by adding up all emissions and tracking glacier meltdowns.

The TIME Magazine puts out a widely read piece which squarely lines up Black Carbon as the number 2 contributor to climate change. "The world could think that we just cut CO2 and the problem is solved and we all go home, but it's not," says Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climatologist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and an expert on black carbon says in TIME. "That's my nightmare."

"Black carbon in the air actually absorbs sunlight as it comes from space, directly heating up the atmosphere. "The soot particles are like the parts of a blanket, and it's getting thicker," says Ramanathan. "The smoke absorbs sunlight and heats the blanket directly."

All of this has particular importance for developing Asian countries, especially India, where a mix of development means that biomass-burning and diesel combustion remains prominent. Black carbon is already having an impact on the ice atop the Himalayas, the massive glaciers that feed the major rivers of Asia when they melt each spring. Thanks to global warming, these glaciers are receding, threatening the long-term water supplies for the region. Ramanathan, Wilcox and an Indian glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain are working to figure out the impact of black carbon on glacial loss. Beyond warming the atmosphere, black carbon can also speed the melting of glaciers by literally turning them black — soot on snow makes the ice heat up faster. "When black carbon falls on the snow, it darkens it," says Ramanathan. "If the snow is white, it reflects 80% of the sunshine, but with black carbon it absorbs the sunlight."

The good news is that while taking CO2 out of our energy cycle has proven very difficult — especially in poorer developing nations — black-carbon emissions should be easier to curb. Reducing deforestation will help — the burning of tropical rain forests is a big contributor to the black-carbon load.

On the other hand, the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests paper says that glaciers in the Himalayas, over a period of the last 100 years, behave in contrasting ways. As an example, Sonapani glacier has retreated by about 500m during the last one hundred years. On the other hand, Kangriz glacier has practically not retreated even an inch in the same period. Siachen glacier is believed to have shown an advance of about 700m between 1862 and 1909, followed by an equally rapid retreat
of around 400m between 1929 and 1958, and hardly any retreat during the last 50 years. Gangotri glacier, which had hitherto been showing a rather rapid retreat, along its glacier front, at an average of around 20m per year till up to 2000 AD, has since slowed down considerably, and between September 2007 and June 2009 is practically at a standstill5. The same is true of the Bhagirathkharak and Zemu glaciers.

The auhtors argue that it is premature to make a statement that glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating abnormally because of the global warming. A glacier is affected by a range of physical features and a complex interplay of climatic factors. It is therefore unlikely that the snout movement of any glacier can be claimed to be a result of periodic climate variation until many centuries of observations become available. While glacier movements are primarily due to climate and snowfall, snout movements appear to be peculiar to each particular glacier.

Smoke: The Killer in the Kitchen

Of the four greatest risks of death and disease in the world’s poorest countries - being underweight; unsafe sex; unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene; and smoke from solid fuel.

Indoor air pollution (IAP) remains a large global health threat. One half of the world population, and up to 95% in poor countries, continues to rely on solid fuels, including biomass fuels (wood, dung, agricultural residues) and coal, to meet their energy needs. Cooking and heating with solid fuels on open fires or on traditional stoves generates high levels of health-damaging pollutants, such as particulates and carbon monoxide.

As women are primarily responsible for cooking, and as children often spend time with their mothers while they are engaged in cooking activities, women and young children are disproportionately affected. For example, the World Health Report (2002) estimates that acute respiratory infection (ARI) is one of the leading causes of child mortality in the world, accounting for up to 20% of fatalities among children under five, almost all of them in developing countries (IAP is thought to cause about one-third of ARI cases). This makes solid fuels the second most important environmental cause of disease after contaminated waterborne diseases (Bruce et al, 2006) and the fourth most important cause of overall excess mortality in developing countries after malnutrition, unsafe sex, and waterborne diseases (Bruce et al, 2006).

The relationship between air pollution and health came into focus from the studies that look at the impacts of ambient air pollution levels in the developed world. The studies indicates that these ambient air pollution levels affect human health, especially the health of young children and infants.

In addition to impacts on mortality, IAP may have long lasting effects on general health and well-being: early exposure to IAP during childhood may stifle lung development, suggesting that the cost of this pollution may continue later in life. In fact, a growing literature indicates that environmental insults at early ages can have long lasting influences on human health and productivity.

More than a third of humanity, 2.4 billion people, burn biomass (wood, crop residues, charcoal and dung) for cooking and heating. When coal is included a total of 3 billion people - half the world’s population - cook with solid fuel.

Around two-thirds of women with lung cancer in China and India are non-smokers.

The smoke from burning these fuels turns kitchens in the world’s poorest countries into death traps. Indoor air pollution from the burning of solid fuels kills over 1.5 million people, predominately women and children, each year. This is more than three people per minute. It is a death toll almost as great as that caused by unsafe water and sanitation, and greater than that caused by malaria. Smoke in the home is one of the world’s leading child killers, claiming nearly one million children’s lives each year.

Globally, reliance on solid fuels is one of the 10 most important threats to public health. Indoor Air Pollution in India results from burning biomass (like wood, crop waste and animal dung) during cooking in the home. The toxic emissions and smoke from this cooking claims as many as 500,000 lives in India every year, most of whom are women and children due to their increased exposure in the home.



One person around the world dies every 20 seconds from the cumulative effects of IAP, resulting in approximately 1.5 million deaths per year. India accounts for 80% of the 600,000 premature deaths that occur in south-east Asia annually due to exposure to IAP. The World Health Organisation estimates that pollution levels in rural Indian kitchens are 30 times higher than recommended levels and six times higher than air pollution levels found in New Delhi.

A survey assessed respiratory function using spirometery tests. The study reveals that CO levels and the reported health symptoms were reduced among women who received planchas. After about 16 months, a little over half (52.3 percent) of women in the treatment group stated that their health had improved, compared with a quarter (23.5 percent) of the control group. Women in the treatment group had reductions of sore eyes, of headaches, and of sore throats as compared to the control. Children in the treatment group experienced reductions in crying and of sore eyes.

Women and children hit hardest

Indoor air pollution is not an indiscriminate killer. It is the poor who rely on the lower grades of fuel and have least access to cleaner technologies. Specifically, indoor air pollution affects women and small children far more than any other sector of society. Women typically spend three to seven hours per day by the fire, exposed to smoke, often with young children nearby.
Over half of all people cooking on biomass live in India and China. This is a chronic problem for people living in rural areas of developing countries, but not exclusively - there is a growing problem in the cities as well.

A problem set to get worse

On current trends an extra 200 million people worldwide will rely on biomass for their cooking and heating needs by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. In parts of Central Asia where gas and electricity used to be available people are reverting back to using biomass as their main fuel source. In Tajikistan since 1991 the incidence of acute respiratory infection, the world’s greatest child killer, has risen by 35% largely as a result of burning wood indoors.

The effects of smoke on health

In the cities of the industrialized world air pollution has long been recognized as a major health hazard. A great deal of time and effort is put into measures that will reduce exposure to air pollution. Yet in poor people’s homes throughout the developing world levels of exposure to pollutants are often 100 times greater than recommended maximums.
The use of poorly ventilated, inefficient stoves ‘can have the same adverse health impacts as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day’.
- United Nations Development Programme.

Illnesses caused by indoor air pollution include acute lower respiratory infection. A child is two to three times more likely to contract acute lower respiratory infection if exposed to indoor air pollution. Women who cook on biomass are up to four times more likely to suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such as chronic bronchitis. Lung cancer in women in China has been directly linked to use of coal burning stoves. In addition there is evidence to link indoor air pollution to asthma, tuberculosis, low birth weight and infant mortality and cataracts.

Reducing lethal levels of smoke

Billions of people would lead a healthier life if their exposure to lethal levels of smoke were reduced. Public awareness of the health risks of smoke is a crucial first step. The most effective way to reduce smoke in the home is to switch to a cleaner fuel, such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene or biogas.

However, the vast majority of people at risk are too poor to change to a cleaner fuel, or have no access to modern fuels. In these homes, the answer will be to reduce exposure, for example by using well designed stoves, or smoke hoods which can reduce indoor air pollution by up to 80%.
Though simple, low-cost solutions are available, a technical fix alone is not the answer. Cooking is a deeply cultural and domestic task and communities themselves, particularly the women, must be directly involved in developing solutions that suit their circumstances.

The Low Hanging Fruit

One of the most persuasive arguments about cooking stoves being THE solution to Black Carbon that is said to contribute up to 18 per cent of the planet’s warming was by NYT’s Elisabeth Rosenthal.

Elisabeth made the simple point that “Replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could provide a much-needed stopgap, while nations struggle with the more difficult task of enacting programs and developing technologies to curb carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

In fact, reducing black carbon is one of a number of relatively quick and simple climate fixes using existing technologies - often called “low hanging fruit” - that scientists say should be plucked immediately to avert the worst projected consequences of global warming. “It is clear to any person who cares about climate change that this will have a huge impact on the global environment,” said Dr. Ramanathan, a professor of climate science at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, who is working with the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi on a project to help poor families acquire new stoves. “

However, ‘Low Hanging Fruit” may be a bit of an over reach or an under-estimation. The government of India has since 1983 been promoting and funding programs for replacing ‘primitive stoves’ with smokeless chullahs. However, after 25 years of efforts by the state and the central government as also a wide cross section of non-profit bodies, technical institutes and even commercial manufacturers, it is clear that changing stoves is far from a ‘low hanging fruit’. On the contrary, it will take large size commitment, huge global effort and multiple formats of cook stoves at price points that are dead cheap for the majority of the residents of the planet who still cook on stoves from India to Peru to go smoke-less.

The not-so-humble stove

So what’s the big bet on Black Carbon given that it is indeed an immediate challenge for India. One of the points that probably get overlooked in the many informed discussions is that the impact of black carbon is in the proximity of emission and, therefore, of a localized nature. So, for India, it is not merely a question of how much it needs to be a per capita contributor to carbon footprints but, simply, what is it that is getting done in the eco sphere around the Himalayas that is impacting it?

Better stoves with lower emissions is clearly the way to go but the real benefit is from the other equally less visible, from a causative point of view is the health issue. As Penn Univ researcher Jeremy Carl had pointed out in his piece ‘Rising From the Ashes: India’s Black Carbon Opportunity’

“But India’s greatest black carbon reduction opportunity remains in cookstoves. Indeed it is the problem of indoor and local air pollution from cookstoves that has caused the Indian government and many private groups to initiate numerous campaigns over several decades to bring improved cookstoves to rural India. But generally speaking, these attempts have been unsuccessful for a variety of reasons.

First, cookstoves may break and villagers may lack the money, spare parts, or expertise to repair them.

Second, traditional cookstoves give a particular flavor to foods and many Indian women are

reluctant to trade these in even for more theoretically efficient stoves.

Third, with the exception of the work done by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy, cookstove programs have almost always been done at a moderate scale. To achieve mass scale necessary for meaningful black carbon reduction (or large scale local health improvement), tens of millions of cookstoves will need to be put into the field and utilized. That takes scale, resources, and reach that can only be done with the active participation of the Indian state at the highest levels, ideally through a public-private partnership.

Cutting smoke volumes: Improved Stoves

More than half the world’s population uses open fires or stoves for cooking and heating, breathing in lethal fumes inside their homes on a daily basis.

This causes 1.5 million premature deaths each year, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) calculations. In developing countries, this makes Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) the most lethal killer after malaria, unsafe sex and lack of clean water or sanitation – yet, in comparison, this issue has a very low profile.

For the foreseeable future billions of people will continue to use wood, cowdung and crop leftovers as their main fuel. Therefore it is essential that efforts to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution be directed at the reality people face now. Smoke will continue to be produced, so it needs to be removed from the house.

Typical traditional cook stoves of south Karnataka can take either two pots or three pots at a time, and use firewood as fuel. The flame surrounds the main pot with some of the hot gases finding their way to the neighbouring pot/pots.

The efficiencies are generally quite low and are of the order of 10%. The kitchens are usually blackened with smoke. A masonry hood-chimney is sometimes provided, which helps in sucking the smoke upwards. The reasons for the low efficiency are not difficult to seek. The main reasons are:
a. Loss of heat through unburnt gases that are released in the air.
b. Radiation loss from the flame.
c. Cooling effect due to excess air factor.
d. Stove losses.
f. Incomplete combustion due to inadequate mixing of air.

Improved stoves were primarily designed to increase energy efficiency. The fuel-efficient ASTRA stove, with a thermal efficiency of 44%, was developed and about 1.5 million stoves disseminated in Karnataka. The level of acceptance was around 60%. The experience of Astra also showed the need for more stove designs to cater to the diverse cooking practices in different regions and clean combustion with improved efficiency.

Recently, organizations such as Envirofit and SELCO launched a range of clean burning biomass cookstoves in the country.

Designed by an international team of globally recognized scientists and engineers, the cookstoves made by Envirofit reduce toxic emissions by as much as 80%, while using 50% less fuel and reducing cooking cycle time by 40%. The cookstoves have been developed as a result of a partnership between Envirofit and Shell Foundation (UK).






















According to a white paper by L K Atheeq, rural areas of Karnataka face indoor air pollution which leads to health related problems like breathing difficulties, upper respiratory infections and breathing difficulties. Besides, the lack of awareness among the rural poor about indoor air pollution and its consequences, these problems are also linked to the economic, social and cultural issues of the rural community. The paper also lists solutions, models current programmes and the way forward besides highlighting how the state is being impacted due to the issue, especially the rural poor.

Let the Smoke Out: The benefits of increased ventilation

More than half the world’s population uses open fires or stoves for cooking and heating, breathing in lethal fumes inside their homes on a daily basis.

This causes 1.5 million premature deaths each year, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) calculations. In developing countries, this makes Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) the most lethal killer after malaria, unsafe sex and lack of clean water or sanitation – yet, in comparison, this issue has a very low profile.

For the foreseeable future billions of people will continue to use wood, cowdung and crop leftovers as their main fuel. Therefore it is essential that efforts to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution be directed at the reality people face now. Smoke will continue to be produced, so it needs to be removed from the house.

Simple measures such as using stoves that emit less smoke or use cleaner fuels could have a dramatic effect on reducing IAP. The Shell Foundation ‘My Kitchen, My Pride’ campaign which was rolled out in October 2008 in Karnataka sought to instil small changes that make a big difference: Keeping children away from smoke, using a stove that emits less smoke, using dried firewood, installing a chimney or ventilator, and keeping open the windows in the kitchen.

The message was captured through a protagonist, Khidki Amma, literally "the lady at the Window" who nosed around village houses and discovered the benefits of keeping windows open and using improved cooking stoves.




Improving Ventilation works wonders

According to Chattopadyay Aparajita, Agnihotram V. Ramanakumar in their study “Burden Of Disease In Rural India: An Analysis Through Cause Of Death. The Internet Journal of Third World Medicine. 2005”, “Trend shows 'Coughs' is major cause of death in almost all the states in general; especially in UP and Rajasthan accounting one-third of deaths with no change over a period of time. Bronchitis and asthma maintained top rank over the two decades accounting more than 8% of total rural deaths in India followed by TB of the lungs accounting 6.1% deaths, its rank been dropped slightly in the following decade. Asthma-bronchitis, TB of the lung and pneumonia are accounting heavy toll among the communicable diseases.”

“About one-third of rural population use wood as fuel for cooking and coupled with poor ventilation and bad-housing conditions may be the cause for prevalence of asthma- bronchitis. TB prevalence is 130.8 per 100,000 in India as one of the major killers in rural India, while the world average is only 59.7. A large scale analysis from National Family Health Survey health in 1992-93 clearly shows that more than half of the women age 30 years and older suffer with risk of active tuberculosis. This may be attributable to bad cooking sources and household smokes and suggests that the use of biomass fuels for cooking substantially increases the risk of tuberculosis in India.”

Studies have suggested that the location and ventilation of the kitchen, permeability of roofs and walls and use of improved cook stoves significantly affect smoke exposure. Studies also suggest that the gains from reducing air pollution within the household can be quite large.

First, the reduction of air pollution within the household has the potential to have a direct effect on respiratory—and even general—health. Second, if household tends to be in better health due to the stoves, they can save much in medical expenditures, which tends to be a large portion of expenditures among the very poor. Third, if household members are in better health, there is a potential for the household to be more productive.

Substantial reductions to smoke exposure have been obtained with relatively simple methods. For example, an ITDG Practical Action project in Kenya reduced particulate and carbon monoxide pollution in homes by nearly 80% through the use of smoke hoods and improved ventilation in the home. Increasing the amount of ventilation involves installing a window or cutting eaves spaces into the wall at roof height.

Further, improved stoves have also been shown to reduce fuel use by about 40% compared with traditional open brick ovens. Households that have used them state that the kitchens are cleaner, children are safer from accidents and there is a considerable saving in the use of fuel wood.