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CleanAirSIG: Stove Related Accidents And Safety Issues
[top] [end]IntroductionThe discussion started with the short movie, “Children of Fire" by Junius Hughes. Junius is a young American film maker who spent quite a bit of time in South Africa and was captured by the importance and danger of stove safety issues. This was perhaps his first movie about stove safety and on the consequences for children of unsafe paraffin stoves.A special thanks to Crispin Pemberton-Pigott for that link to Children of Fire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfk-Ki9MqpU This short movie "Children of Fire" by Junius Hughes, highlights the importance of stove safety in homes for those using liquid fuels like paraffin and kerosene even if it is just for igniting the biomass fuel.This short film sparked a discussion on three important issues:
[top] [end] Dangers Of Using Certain Liquid Fuels For CookingLiz Bates started the discussion saying that it was an amazing film, as the scale of the problem is huge, and Junius Hughes is doing brilliant work. She is also campaigning to try to make sure that people do not get burnt in the first place. She reminded us that it needs to be clarified that not all liquid fuels are dangerous - ethanol, not used in an ethanol stove, will burn with a lazy flame that really does not want to do anything - it does not burn in this explosive way. Fuel oils, such as jatropha, are similarly safe. Kerosene itself is fine, provided that the stove is of high quality (the woman herself stated that 'we should get these dangerous stoves off the market) - although there are many cases of kerosene being adulterated with other liquids to increase the profit margin. Liz also mentioned that Don O'Neal, from HELPS international, first looked at stoves because of all the burns that he saw.Ron Replied that he had trouble viewing the film but managed to see it finally. Grant Ballard Tremeer provided a link to the page on Stove Accidents in the Global press for those looking for further information on safety. This page is regularly updated by James Robinson . Liz mentioned another excellent article on using a checklist for safety, particularly with biomass stoves - which have their own major risks about the Direct Contact Hazards Of Cookstoves - Burns Cuts And Scalds Nikhil Desai explained that paraffin and kerosene are the same thing. In some regions, kerosene is close to the specs of aviation fuel and the name is reserved for that fuel; the cooking fuel being paraffin. In some other places, aviation fuel is called aviation gasoline instead of aviation kerosene. Wikipedia says keorsene was a trade name. This was an important clarification since in India when we say kerosene we mean the paraffin we get at a subsidy through Govt.ration( people call it Rock Oil too) and paraffin to common people is wax which is solid. Nikhil Desai further explained that some fuels burn faster, hotter, spread quicker. Fires spread since people live surrounded by combustible materials since they remain negligent and ignorant. And negligence and ignorance are not fuel qualities. But oil companies could do more to educate people. After all, some vehicle types - the Indian two-wheelers for instance - are markets of size comparable to that of cooking kerosene, at least in some large countries like India. He says, 'I am taking an economist's view as usual - stoves/kerosene market in India is perhaps $50 billion a year, and the two-wheeler/petrol market is about the same. Nikhil Desai then makes a statement that negligence and ignorance are not uncommon among the poorer folks'. Liz Bates agreed with Nikhil but she thought it is important not to damn all liquid fuels and stoves, when we are surrounded by biomass stoves that are also inherently dangerous. People may be negligent, but this is often because they are victims of circumstance - they have to be outside the house gathering wood, water, farming etc. and maybe the house is cold, there are one or two small children running round the house, they do not have a separate room, and in confined spaces, with too much to do and too little time to do it, and no money to fix the situation, perhaps it is less negligence and ignorance than lack of space and resources and lack of opportunities to change? Liz explained that negligence implies the decision to not do something which one knows one could/should do, but chooses not to - like one might watch TV knowing that he/she should be writing up notes, or more likely, cleaning the house. People can be victims of circumstance, and she felt that negligence is far too damning a word – “if you are crowded into a tiny kitchen, you may not recognise the terrible risks of an open fire because your forebears have lived the same way, but you are not being negligent if you continue to live in the same way, if the options to change are not available”. “We should be making the options to change available......I reckon,” said Liz Bates. [top] [end] Safe Cooking VesselsMarco Peter from Nepal found the film very moving. He shares his own experiences as mentioned below.‘In the children's primary health care centre I used to be involved with here in Nepal, we regularly saw horrible cases where unattended toddlers had fallen into open pit fires as well as many serious burns cause by scolds.The burns were mostly never seen by a health worker of any kind until years later, which caused skin contractures leading to many types of disabilities and disfigurements’. Marco Peter requested all of us involved with clean cooking technology, whatever it may be; solar, rocket biomass or whatever, need to remember to try and make it safe in use. He also asked the members, ‘What types of cooking pots are the safest and whether there has been any work done in this area? Pressure cookers for instance, are they safer or are they potentially more dangerous than open pots if knocked from a height’? Karabi replied that It is difficult to design a safe cooking vessel which will fit into all types of stoves meet all types of cooking needs. But a pressure cooker is a good option but again the user should take care that the gasket is properly fitted and the valve is clean. In India pressure cooker is an essential item in all kitchens.........rural or urban, poor or rich. Even the pavement dwellers use pressure cookers on open fires. She then gives a reference of an interesting article on Field Trials Of Electric Heat Storage Cookers. Marco Peter replied , “ Yes I myself use pressure cookers in my home here in Nepal. I find the black 'Hawkins' models especially good for cooking using my parabolic solar cookers. I agree with you that if used correctly they are probably the most safe form of vessel”. His only worry would be in the scenario where one could get dropped onto the floor/knocked off the cooker whilst hot, displacing the weight on the steam valve, which could maybe spray extremely hot liquid out? But says maybe he was just worrying too much! He futher adds that electric vessels are not so practical in Nepal as we currently have 18 hours load shedding each and every day. So he suggests , “Bring on the sun......”. Nikhil assured Marco that he was not worrying too much. He has had pressure cookers blow up a couple of times, each time causing significant damage and mess but fortunately no injury. And pressure cooker handles are not as good as those for large pots - one on each side - so small/weak persons lifting larger, full cookers when hot face precisely the risk Marco mentioned. He concludes with a question enquiring, ‘What are the risks of solar cookers? Too hot to touch sometimes’? Marco Peter replies that he agreed about the pressure cooker handles. The basic design for them is the same for Prestige, Hawkins and a plethora of other smaller manufacturers in India and Nepal.The two screws holding the two halves of the handle always without fail work loose, creating a dangerous situation. Some manufacturers including Prestige have a second pressure release valve that can be reset. Prestige pressure cookers use a non-standard size safety valve which is much smaller than the one commonly used. Regarding solar cookers he comments that solar box cookers are arguably safer than parabolic solar where greater temperatures are reached and there is also risk of eye damage.As many parabolic solar designs are movable to facilitate focusing on the moving sun, there is also the chance of them spilling the contents of the hot pots when they are being moved, or are accidentally bumped into. Aurea de Andrade from Brazil replied that for using solar cookers, we should consider: Handlers (used for any hot pot - as in solar cookers they also become too hot to touch),black glasses or protection made with black plastic; avoid looking directly to the sun, large hats (straw ones are fresh, or textile ones) - if constantly exposed to UV rays, specially after 10AM until 3 PM. Aurea de Andrade commented, ‘I don´t use parabolic stoves - because I dind´t find who could adapt a cheap device for moving automatically the focus following the apparent movement of the sun. I only use homemade cheap heaters and driers’. Margaret Owino,Director - Solar Cookers International in Kenya greeted everyone with, ‘Here comes the sun right from the center and in Africa at that’. She then informs all the members that comparatively solar cookers are safer and are not prone to any explosive accidents unless from the accompanying utensils like pressure cookers. Solar cookers focus sunlight to the cooking vessel, hence they are never hot. She says that some solar cookers most of what Aurea has stated like pot handlers, but unlike the parabolic, box cookers and CooKits do not need sun glasses, this is an added cost and may not be socially acceptable - so the cook's shadow on the reflective surface for short instances when one must be near the cooker, or stay behind it helps to shield the eyes. As for the heat, some of us were born here and are used to the sun without even a hat, that is not to say people should not have them, we try not to add on to the already constrained woman. Aurea said that she agreed with all Margaret mentioned and that she was thankful to the Solar Cookers International for all she was learning with their sites and links. Aurea also mentions, ‘The straw hats are very cheap here, used in rural areas, easily making, or with recycled textiles. Or simple using large tree leaves tied on the head with strings...The pot handlers are need in my drying learning because inside the black plastic drier, the food is on metal trays - very hot’. Kavita Rai, Programme Manager, GVEP International shares her experiences in Nepal as follows: “Almost a decade and a half ago, on a site visit to a mid hill village in Nepal, I heard pressure cookers were provided for free if the households built an improved cookstove. However, pressure cookers were not utilised as much as expected. I think rural Nepalis (apart from high mountains) tend to use less of the pressure cookers except for cooking one or two items. Also, during my days working for ITDG, now Practical Action, we tested and worked on electric cooking extensively. This technology however needs an off grid source such as micro hydro and not many people could use it as it meant subscribing to at least 250-300Watts. The programme ended unfortunately without taking off for many reasons. There are many NGOs working on stove designs in Nepal including the AEPC but then a consolidated effort in Stoves is yet to be seen. I met a few Organisations in December and found that interlinkages amongst stakeholders were weak. I also think that awareness programmes are extremely important in rural areas and I guess the Cook stoves dissemination could take a lesson from the Vitamin A programme and similar others. However, I guess this needs a concerted effort from all stakeholders involved and include health experts. Marco Peter replied that in the Western region where they work he has seen a lot of pressure cookers being used in village areas. Having said that he think there is a huge potential for further promotion that would benefit from a more holistic approach including also nutritional, indoor air pollution and other necessary initiatives. They are hoping (funding permitting!) to be able to support such an initiative across 13 VDCs of Rupandehi and also urban slum dwellings in Pokhara with a combination of solar box, hay box and rocket stoves alongside other initiatives such as nutritional, general health awareness (focus under 5s and safer motherhood) and where needed, sanitation too. He also adds that for urban slum dwellings in the Pokhara valley, it would be likely that rocket stoves (with chimney mostly) would be practical. I agree that there is a lack of a consolidated approach, and also much promotion still of outdated technologies such as the mud brick chimney stoves (often called 'ICS' in Nepal), which they are withdrawing support for from later this year ( 2009). [top] [end] Stove Safety ParametersKarabi Dutta commented that accidents and burn injuries due to kerosene stove bursting are very common in India. In most cases the faulty stove is the cause. Both in urban and rural areas stove related accidents happen due to leakage or faulty parts of the stove and poor handling. Accidents also happen when kerosene is sprayed over wood pieces or coal to start a fire. Too much kerosene over the wood pieces and a lighted match stick is all it takes to cause a sudden blast of flame.She mentions that at the ETHOS 2009 there was a panel on stove safety which brought to focus that there are hardly any stove safety testing standards in most developing countries. Gloria, Standards Manager, Malawi Bureau of Standards contributed her experiences from Malawi. She mentioned that accidents of burn injuries were also very common in Malawi some years ago. They thought the main contributor was the type of paraffin for example flash point 38 which is very common is very dangerous in terms of fire accidents. They switched to flash point 43 paraffin which reduced the accidents cases but created another problem of scarcity. They thought of doing a nationwide awareness program on paraffin use and accidents then they had to switch back to 38. It depends mainly on the type and also on the appliances (quality) as pointed out already by others. She said that she supported the idea of pursuing safety issues. Nathan Johnson ,PhD Candidate, Mechanical Engineering, International Development from Iowa State University sent the following message: “At ETHOS 2009 we held a panel on stove safety, bringing in viewpoints from corporate standards development, national standards certification, and small to medium scale developers. The team led by Nathan Johnson (Iowa State University) included Crispin Pemberton-Pigott (New Dawn Engineering), Casper Thijssen (Philips), and Karabi Dutta. The panel gave a comparative analysis of how different stove industries (multinational corporations, medium-scale companies, NGOs, small developers, etc.) addressed fundamental stove safety questions. These topics included:
I will be leading a group in 2009 to work on the following: assemble database of injury data, b) analyze incentive mechanisms, cost/ benefit, c) development of lab testing procedures for different stove categories, d) publication of findings/ results, and e) look for partnerships with international agencies to support safer stove design and production. Please contact me if you have any questions. There will be more updates to follow”. He mentions that the stove safety team will providing more content in the following months. If anyone was interested to be part of the discussion, research, or implementation and promotion of safer stoves, to let him know, they are just getting started with a more organized effort. If you are one of the many individuals and institutions out there with background in the area, it would be great to hear your story. I am certain many persons have experiences and perhaps resources to help the larger stoves community define pathways to benefit a larger number of end users. Rodolfo Gomes replied that it was an interesting work and initiative. He wished everyone all the best and requested that the list be kept informed of all activities and findings regarding stove safety. | ||||||
Page created:
16 March 2009; Last edited:
16 March 2009; Version: 1 | ||||||
Pagename: CleanAirSIG:StoveRelatedAccidentsAndSafetyIssues @HEDON: NGQA | ||||||
