ARC E-Newsletter 4/18/25: Building Blocks to Health
Aprovecho Research Center
Building Blocks to Health
In 2018, the World Health Organization published the book “Air pollution and child health: prescribing clean air”. The report concludes, “Every day around the world, billions of children are exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution. The result is a global public health emergency.”
The WHO suggested “prescriptions” to clean the air and protect health:
- Use clean household energy for cooking, heating, and lighting.
- While waiting for clean to be available, use technologies and fuels that reduce exposure such as low-emission biomass cook stoves.
- Minimize the time children spend around smoky fires.
- Increase ventilation or install a chimney.
A combination of interventions is usually most cost effective.
ONE
- Help to make clean burning stoves available.
- Promote solar lighting.
TWO
- Forced draft stoves can burn up a lot of the smoke.
- An adjustable Pot Skirt forces the hot gases to scrape against the sides of the pot as well as the bottom reducing fuel use by about one-third. That results in one-third fewer emissions!
- A light weight, abrasion resistant Rocket combustion chamber can burn up ~ 50% of smoke compared to the open fire.
- Winiarski designed stovetops can increase heat transfer efficiency by ~8%.
THREE
- Promote reduction of exposure to family members, especially to women and children.
FOUR
- Doubling the air change rate reduces smoke in half.
- Locate the fire under a window on the low pressure side of the house.
- Cook outside.
- Chimneys have been a part of traditional houses for centuries.
- Cook with a chimney!
Find the new book "Improving Biomass Stoves," resources, publications and information about our work at www.aprovecho.org
Find archived newsletters online at aprovecho.org/newsletters
© 2025 Aprovecho Research Center/Advanced Studies in Appropriate Technology
76132 Blue Mountain School Road, PO Box 1175, Cottage Grove, Oregon, 97424 - USA
(541) 767-0287 • www.aprovecho.org