HAP randomized trials | Improved stoves & breweries | WHO climate change | HAP & Life Cycle Assessments | Electric kettles and water treatment
Dan Campbell
The latest posts to the WASHplus IAP Updates
Are Randomized Trials Necessary to Advance Epidemiologic Research on Household Air Pollution? Curr Epidemiol Rep, Sept 2015.
Authors: Jennifer L. Peel & Jill Baumgartner & Gregory A. Wellenius & Maggie L. Clark & Kirk R. Smith
Although policy makers and funding agencies often call for more randomized trials of interventions to reduce household air pollution, randomized trials for household air pollution are not feasible for certain health endpoints, may not provide the information
that is needed for advancing policy, and may even lead to improper causal inference. A variety of study designs, both observational and randomized, may be useful if they include quantitative exposure measurements and appropriately track and measure stove use
and other important confounders over time.
Beer, Wood, and Welfare ‒ The Impact of Improved Stove Use Among Dolo-Beer Breweries. PLoS One. Aug 2015.
Authors: Michael Grimm and Jörg Peters
Local beer breweries in Burkina Faso absorb a considerable amount of urban woodfuel demand. We assess the woodfuel savings caused by the adoption of improved brewing stoves by these micro-breweries and estimate the implied welfare effects through the woodfuel market on private households as well as the environmental effect. We find substantial wood savings among the breweries, 36% to 38% if they fully switch to an improved stove.
WHO calls to protect health from climate change, October 6, 2015.
WHO calls on the global health community to add its voice to the call for a strong and effective climate agreement at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-21), that will save lives, both now and in the future. Changes to weather patterns result in extreme weather events that threaten lives and cause changes to infectious disease transmission patterns resulting in more outbreaks.
Biogas Cook Stoves for Healthy and Sustainable Diets? A Case Study in Southern India. Front
Nutr. 2015 Sep
Authors: Anderman TL, DeFries RS, Wood SA, Remans R, Ahuja R, Ulla SE.
We compare treatment households who are supplied with a biogas cook stove with comparison households who do not have access to these stoves, while controlling for several socio-economic factors. We find that diets of treatment households are more diverse than diets of comparison households. In addition, women from treatment households spend on average 40 min less cooking and 70 min less collecting firewood per day than women in comparison households.
Indoor air pollutant exposure for life cycle assessment: regional health impact
factors for households. Environ. Sci. Technol, October 7, 2015
Authors: Ralph K Rosenbaum, Arjen Meijer, Evangelia Demou, Stefanie Hellweg, Olivier Jolliet, Nicholas L. Lam, Manuele Margni, and Thomas E. McKone
Human exposure to indoor pollutant concentrations is receiving increasing interest in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). We address this issue by incorporating an indoor compartment into the USEtox model, as well as by providing recommended parameter values for households in four different regions of the world differing geographically, economically, and socially. With these parameter values, intake fractions and comparative toxicity potentials for indoor emissions of dwellings for different air tightness levels were calculated.
Microbiological Evaluation of Household Drinking Water Treatment in Rural China
Shows Benefits of Electric Kettles: A Cross-Sectional Study. PLoS One. Sept 2015.
Authors: Alasdair Cohen, Yong Tao, Qing Luo, Gemei Zhong, Jeff Romm, John M. Colford, Jr, and Isha Ray
Conclusion – As far as we are aware, this is the first HWT-focused study in China, and the first to quantify the comparative advantage of boiling with electric kettles over pots. Our results suggest that electric kettles could be used to rapidly expand safe drinking water access and reduce HAP exposure in rural China.