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Boiling Point 34: Smoke Removal - September 1994

Boiling Point
Front cover of Boiling Point issue 34
Issue 34 (1994) Smoke Removal

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Wood and other forms of biomass are the main cooking fuels for about half the world's population, and will remain so for at least the next few decades. In most parts of the developing world they are burned in open fires or inefficient stoves in poorly ventilated kitchens. Women and children are continuously exposed to high levels of harmful smoke and suffer serious health damage.

Billions of dollars have been spent on research into the effects of cigarette smoke but very little has been done to protect the women who must cook to live, although the problem has been recognized for more than ten years.

Biomass smoke contains several poisonous constituents such as respirable particulates and carbon monoxide (CO). These can result in pneumonia, tuberculosis, lower birth weights, eye cataracts and nervous and muscular fatigue. Smoke also contains sulphur and nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons which may be carcinogenic. It is probably the main killer of children under five.

The amounts of these compounds that are produced depend greatly on how well the fuel is burned. In ideal conditions of complete combustion, they are mostly converted into carbon dioxide, (C02) which realtively harmless to people but damaging to the global atmosphere. In open fires and cooking stoves these conditions cannot be achieved and so incomplete combustion allows the pollutants to enter the kitchen atmosphere and the body.

A first step towards reducing or removing the smoke and identifying the fuels and conditions repsonsible is to be able to measure its concentrations, and compare these with accepted safe standards. Instrumetns have been developed and people trained to use them in several countries so that more data is becoming available.

For several years, Boiling point has reported on ways of reducing smoke such as:
  • quicker cooking, and therefore less time in the kitchen;
  • better stoves and less smoky stoves;
  • cleaner and more economical fuels;
  • better stove use.
In this edition we are concentrating on how to remove smoke from the kitchen by means of:
  • better design - windows, doors, roof and other ventilation;
  • better chimneys (see also BP28);
  • hoods over stoves, connected to chimneys.
Although there is no easy answer to the problem, the recent work of Peter Young (ITDG) adn colleagues in Kenya (A Breath of Fresh Air for Smoky Houses) with new designs fo hoods, may in many cases be the best answer within the cost constraints of poor households. More research and development is needed in countries with different clinates and cooking habits to produce cheap, efficient and covenient hoods. Dr Kammen's article sums up the situation calling for the inclusion of Third World domestic cooking isssues in all major development programmes, and a much greater input of effort and funds at all levels, to reduce fuel use and atmospheric pollution.

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Page created: 20 August 2007; Last edited: 01 December 2008; Version: 3
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Pagename: BoilingPoint34-September1994 @HEDON: MTGA