New SEI report Affordable cooking energy to households across Africa | Training in Household Air Monitoring
Dan Campbell
Below are 1 or 2 sentence excerpts from the 3 latest posts to the WASHplus IAP Updates, http://blogs.washplus.org/iaqupdates
Bringing clean, safe, affordable cooking energy to households across Africa: an agenda for action, 2015.
Authors: Fiona Lambe, Marie Jürisoo, Hannah Wanjiru and Jacqueline Senyagwa. SEI.
This paper presents an overview of current household energy trends in Africa, and the reasons why access to modern cooking facilities remains so low. It then presents the latest evidence on the health, environmental and socio-economic impacts of traditional biomass use in sub-Saharan Africa, with a dedicated section on the particular challenges associated with charcoal as a household cooking fuel. Next, it highlights where interventions to provide access to clean and improved cooking options are having a positive impact, drawing on case studies in Mali, Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia.
----------------------------------------------------------------INCLEN-UCB Training in Household Air Monitoring (THAM), Sept 2015.
The INCLEN-UCB Training in Household Air Monitoring (THAM) provided training to Indian investigators currently engaged or interested in household air pollution research, including projects to evaluate the health and other impacts of traditional and advanced cookstoves and fuels. THAM was hosted by INCLEN, the International Clinical Epidemiology Network with field activities at their SOMAARTH Demographic Development & Environmental Surveillance Site. This year’s curriculum focused on air pollution measurement in households and focused on the most current methods used worldwide.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Acute exposure to wood smoke from incomplete combustion – indications of cytotoxicity. Particle and Fibre Toxicology, Oct 2015.
Authors: Ala Muala, Gregory Rankin, Maria Sehlstedt
Background - Smoke from combustion of biomass fuels is a major risk factor for respiratory disease, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to determine whether exposure to wood smoke from incomplete combustion would elicit airway inflammation in humans.
Conclusions - Short-term exposure to sooty PAH rich wood smoke did not induce an acute neutrophilic inflammation, a classic hallmark of air pollution exposure in humans. While minor proinflammatory lymphocytic and mast cells effects were observed in the bronchial biopsies, significant reductions in BW and BAL cells and soluble components were noted. This unexpected observation, combined with the in vitro data, suggests that wood smoke particles from incomplete combustion could be potentially cytotoxic. Additional research is required to establish the mechanism of this dramatic reduction in airway leukocytes and to clarify how this acute response contributes to the adverse health effects attributed to wood smoke exposure.