COOKSTOVES AND HEALTH
IN KENYA

Summary

The rural environment of developing nations constitutes a particularly significant and appropriate context for research on technology transfer, environmental change, and public health.  In this setting, the diffusion and application of new energy technologies have directly observable local impacts on economic opportunity, human health, and the ecosystem, as well as on the global flux of greenhouse gases.  Despite such significance, the integration of energy technology management, land use, and ecology with human health in a common framework has few, if any, precedents; but it is essential if fundamental improvements in human development and conservation policy formulation are to be implemented.

The long-term objective of this research is to investigate the interrelationship between technology management and innovation, and the resulting impacts on economic development, public health, and ecological conservation and sustainability in a rural context.  The focus of  my dissertation research is to develop a new notion of "household ecology" that considers the links between human activity, human environment - within and surrounding the home, subsistence agricultural plots, cattle compounds, and fuelwood resources - and public health with emphasis on: the role of household energy technology (traditional and improved cookstoves) in shaping this ecosystem, the impacts of the latter on human health, and the local knowledge of these issues.

The research is organized around three themes: (i) Household choice of technology; (ii) Interaction between household activity and local environment (indoor and outdoor); (iii) Impacts of local environment on human health.

Motivation

Historically few studies of public health in Africa have utilized the connection of health to the local environment, and especially how the whole system is influenced by the introduction of new technologies.  Examples of works that do take such an integrated approach include the classical study of John Ford (1971) on the interaction between human activity, vegetation, wildlife, cattle health, and the spread of sleeping sickness in East Africa, and Sir Malcolm Watson’s (1953) analysis of the relationship between economic activity, landscape change, insect density, and malaria in Central Africa.  Both works encourage control of disease by environmental management in a manner similar to early efforts elsewhere in the world to manage malaria through ecological manipulation and minimal use of pesticides (McArthur, 1947).

In contrast to such studies, today when addressing public health questions development policy forums commonly treat the relationships between technology and the environment, and between the environment and disease transmission in a surprisingly simplistic manner: In each case traditional technology, health, and environmental policy research has focused on understanding and controlling isolated sections of the natural environment in a mechanistic manner.  It is all too common to find malaria treated via a particular drug distribution program, only to experience a dramatic increase in drug resistant strains the next season. Similarly, malnutrition is often addressed by presenting a particular improved crop variety to a community that also lacks water resources for irrigation.  In three successive years, the World Bank issued its influential annual World Development Report titled Development and the Environment (1992), Investing in Health (1993), and Infrastructure for Development (1994) on the above-mentioned topics.  The three reports individually contain a number of important points, but could have been written by three different organizations: each stands in almost complete isolation from the lessons, problems, and policy options set forth in the other two.  In fact, the basic connections among these topics should be obvious: community health requires sanitation infrastructure; building roads and new settlements alters forests and wetlands; deforestation and erosion often result in reduced agricultural yields; and so forth.

In the specific case of household environment, consistently overlooked is the fact that the outdoor and indoor environments of rural communities are complex ecological-health systems which require integrated management.  The presence and density of various rodents and pests around and inside the house, for example, is influenced by the proximity of cattle, the storage of firewood or food, and smoke from burning of wood or dung (NRC, 1991).  In this complex ecological-economic system, it is not surprising that human activity - especially the introduction of new technology - and human health are tightly connected with the local environment.  The integrated management strategy undoubtedly calls not only for the bridging of the traditional scientific fields which deal with the various aspects of the human and natural environments but also for a new reservoir of knowledge which studies such domains as inherently connected phenomena.

Geographical Focus

Nowhere is the need for reliable, non-polluting and locally managed sources of energy more pressing than in Africa, where over 60% of national energy supplies, and 90% of household energy needs are met with biomass fuels (Bradley, 1991).  The dependence on biomass contributes to a range of economic, health, and environmental problems as human activity is embedded in, and interrelated with, a complex ecological system among the rural communities of African countries (Johnson and Anderson, 1988; Kjekshus, 1996).  Demand for wood impacts the natural ecosystem through fuel harvesting (often over one ton per person per year) and disruption of natural nutrient cycling.  Indoor air pollution from traditional cooking methods has serious health implications.  High levels of wood smoke exposure - often 10 to 20 times the recommended exposure limits - have been reported in studies from many developing nations (Kammen et al., 1999).  This, in turn, has been linked to acute respiratory infection (ARI), in particular pneumonia, as well as eye infections and burns (Ezzati et al., 1999).  ARI is the leading health hazard to children in developing nations, and in the general population results in an estimated 4.3 million deaths per year (Smith, 1993).

Research Objectives and Policy Applications

The specific objectives of this research and its policy applications are as follows:

Household choice of energy technology and lessons for technology transfer: The design, dissemination, and management of new technologies is fundamental to the objectives of economic and human advancement in developing nations, and to our ability to conserve the environment.  Renewable energy technologies -  such as photovoltaics, large and small-scale wind energy technologies, biomass systems - are deemed as particularly important in the latter context.  At the same time little predictive theoretical or empirical understanding has emerged from the various approaches to "technology transfer studies" in the context of industrialized or developing nations (Kammen, 1995).  Such an understanding, however, is vital to any efforts that wish generalize and apply the results of specific pilot projects to a wide range of development planning.  We studied the various factors that influence the household choice of technology along the following themes: economic factors versus cultural forces; scale of decision making: community level, household level, and intra-household (in particular gender issues).

The work has been carried out in collaboration with Ekero Jiko Sales, a community based development group, to introduce locally designed and manufactured ceramic cookstoves. Most improved (high efficiency and low emission) cookstoves use a ceramic liner to retain heat, as opposed to traditional 3-stone cookers (see below) which have few insulating properties. Improved cookstoves are designed for both of the common fuels used in Kenyan society: firewood and charcoal.

Traditional 3 stone cooker

The impacts of energy technology on indoor air pollution: We studied the impact of the various forms of household energy technology on the level of indoor air pollution resulting from smoke emission, and any improvements that may come about as an outcome of the introduction of improved (high-efficiency-low-emission) ceramic cookstoves. . Unlike numerous studies that have focused on the efficiency and emissions of improved cookstoves in laboratory environment only, emissions under the conditions of operation by actual users was considered by conducting day-long (14-hour) monitoring of pollution levels at different points inside the house. Mean daily suspended particulate levels of 1000 - 5000 ((mg/m3) were found to be common among those households which use firewood, with maximum levels as high as 200,000 ((mg/m3). During this period wood consumption was also monitored as were the activities of all the members of the house, especially those related to cooking. The first set of results from this analysis indicate that improved stoves (both wood and charcoal) reduce the average pollution level but there is still a large region of overlap between improved stoves and open fire.

Cooking smoke emanating from the roof of a house

Indoor air pollution and health: A central focus of this research has been to establish the quantitative relationship between the level of various toxicants in smoke, in particular suspended particulates and carbon monoxide, and respiratory and eye infections. This "dose-response" relationship is fundamental to a detailed assessment of the cost-benefit trade off expected from various technological interventions, a framework which has been largely lacking from current approaches to managing technology transfer and training programs.

Research Site

The research is based at the 55,000 acre Mpala Research Centre/Ranch in Laikipia District, Kenya, which is administered by Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and the National Museums of Kenya.  Activities at the research centre have a high profile with not only the local community groups but also the large land holders in Laikipia and the national government.

Mpala Research Centre and Mpala ranch together comprise two villages which house the staff of the research centre and the ranch, and more than five bomas – compounds which house pastoralist households who take care of cattle in traditional homesteads.  The large degree of population stability at Mpala provides a rare condition for the collection of panel data (Deaton, 1995).  Further, the large matrix of houses and occupations at Mpala provides an unmatched opportunity for comparative research.

Research Methodology

We employed a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods in my study.  A summary of data collection schemes for establishing the specific health-environment interaction are as follows:

Indoor air pollution and exposure to smoke: Emissions measurements will take place with commercially available PersonalDataRam (for Total Suspended Particulate (TSP)) and ENEREC combustion analyzer (for carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide).  We conduct day-long monitoring of pollution level at different points inside the house for a representative number of households based on fuel type, stove type, and characteristics of the house in each air pollution category.  During this period we also monitor wood consumption and the activities of all the members of the house especially as related to cooking.  The air pollution and time-activity information together provide a profile of the person’s exposure to smoke during the day (exposure is dependent on how much smoke there is in the house and how much time the individual spends indoors).

Health data: In collaboration with Dr. A.W. Muriithi, from the Department of Pediatrics and Acute Respiratory (ARI) Program at the University of Nairobi Medical School, we have set up a data collection scheme to monitor household health with emphasis on acute respiratory infection (ARI), eye infection, and skin disease.  We have provided training for two community nurses from Nanyuki District Hospital on the World Health Organization protocols for diagnosing ARI.  They visit the communities at Mpala on weekly basis to collect clinical health records and provide basic medicine to the local communities.

Funding

Summit Foundation, Compton Foundation, ASAL Development Programme Laikipia District, SSRC, CIS, CRS.

References

• Ezzati, M., Kammen, D. M. and Mbinda, B. M. (2000) "Comparison of Traditional and Improved Cookstoves: A Health-Focused Analysis", Environment International, submitted.

• Ezzati, M., Saleh, H., and Kammen, D. M. (2000) " The Critical Role of Microenvironments in Pollutant Exposure and Impact: Individual Behaviour and Indoor Air Pollution from Biomass Combustion in Kenya", Environmental Health Perspectives, submitted.

• Ezzati, M., B.M. Mbinda, and D. M. Kammen (2000) "Comparison of Emissions and Residential Exposure from Traditional and Improved Cookstoves in Kenya," Environmental Science and Technology, 34 (2), p. 578-583. (See http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/doilookup?10.1021/es9905795 for on-line version; View tables and figures (PDF)).

• Kammen, D. M., M. Ezzati, and B.M. Mbinda (1999) "The Determinants of Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution from Biofuel Stoves in Rural Kenya," The Proceedings of Indoor Air 99: the 8th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate; Edinburgh, Scotland; August 1999, 3, 171-176.

• Ezzati, M., Kammen, D.M., and Mbinda, B.M. (1999) "Field Research Programme on Energy Technology, Health, and the Environment," Boiling Point, 43, p. 33-34.

• Ezzati, M., D. M. Kammen, and B. H. Singer (1999) "The Health Impacts of Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution from Biofuel Stoves in Rural Kenya," The Proceedings of Indoor Air 99: the 8th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate; Edinburgh, Scotland; August 1999, 3, 130-135.

• Ezzati, M., Singer, B. H., and Kammen D. M. (1999) "Towards an Integrated Framework for Development-Environment Policy: The Dynamics of Environmental Kuznets Curves," Submitted to Ecological Economics.

• Saleh, H., M. Ezzati, D. M. Kammen, and B.H. Singer (1999) "The Health Impacts of Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution from Biofuel Stoves in Rural Kenya: A Behaviour-Based Analysis," Submitted to Environmental Science and Policy.

• Kammen, D.M. (1995) "Cookstoves for the Developing world," Scientific American, 273, p. 72 - 75.

• Kammen, D. M. (1995) "From Energy Efficiency to Social Utility: Improved Cookstoves and the Small is Beautiful Model of Development," in Energy as an Instrument for Socio-economic Development, Goldemberg, J. and Johansson, T. B. (eds.).  New York: United Nations Development Programme.

• Deaton, A. (1995) “Data and Econometric Tools for Development Analysis,” in Behrman, J. and Srinivasan, T.N. (eds.) Handbook of Development Economics, Volume III.  Amsterdam: North Holland.

• Deaton, A. (1995) “Data and Econometric Tools for Development Analysis,” in Behrman, J. and Srinivasan, T.N. (eds.) Handbook of Development Economics, Volume III.  Amsterdam: North Holland.

• Johnson, D. H. and Anderson, D. M. (eds.) (1988) The Ecology of Survival: Case Studies from Northeast African History.  Boulder: Westview Press.

• Ford, J. (1971) The role of the trypanosomiases in African Ecology: A Study of Tsetse Fly Problem.  Oxford: Clarendon Press.

• McArthur, J. N. (1947) “The Transmission of Malaria in Borneo,” in The Transactions of the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 40, 537-558.

• NRC (1991) Animals as Sentinels of Environmental Health Hazards.  Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

• Smith, K. R. (1993) “The Health Impact of Cookstove Smoke in Africa”, in Oesterdiekhoff, P., (ed.) African Development Perspectives Yearbook, 3.

• Watson, Sir M. (1953) African Highway: The Battle for Health in Central Africa.  London: John Murray.

• World Bank. (1992) World Development Report 1992: Development and the Environment. New York: Oxford University Press.

• World Bank. (1993) World Development Report 1993: Investing in Health. New York: Oxford University Press.

• World Bank. (1994) World Development Report 1994: Infrastructure for Development. New York: Oxford University Press.