Cooking practices, air quality, and the acceptability of advanced cookstoves in Haryana, India: an exploratory study to inform large-scale interventions

Abstract

Background: In India, approximately 66% of households rely on dung or woody biomass as fuels for cooking. These fuels are burned under inefficient conditions, leading to household air pollution (HAP) and exposure to smoke containing toxic substances. Large-scale intervention efforts need to be informed by careful piloting to address multiple methodological and sociocultural issues. This exploratory study provides preliminary data for such an exercise from Palwal District, Haryana, India.

Methods: Traditional cooking practices were assessed through semi-structured interviews in participating households. Philips and Oorja, two brands of commercially available advanced cookstoves with small blowers to improve combustion, were deployed in these households. Concentrations of particulate matter (PM) with a diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) related to traditional stove use were measured using real-time and integrated personal, microenvironmental samplers for optimizing protocols to evaluate exposure reduction. Qualitative data on acceptability of advanced stoves and objective measures of stove usage were also collected.

Results: Twenty-eight of the thirty-two participating households had outdoor primary cooking spaces. Twenty households had liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) but preferred traditional stoves as the cost of LPG was higher and because meals cooked on traditional stoves were perceived to taste better. Kitchen area concentrations and kitchen personal concentrations assessed during cooking events were very high, with respective mean PM2.5 concentrations of 468 and 718 µg/m3. Twenty-four hour outdoor concentrations averaged 400 µg/m3. Twenty-four hour personal CO concentrations ranged between 0.82 and 5.27 ppm. The Philips stove was used more often and for more hours than the Oorja.

Conclusions: The high PM and CO concentrations reinforce the need for interventions that reduce HAP exposure in the aforementioned community. Of the two stoves tested, participants expressed satisfaction with the Philips brand as it met the local criteria for usability. Further understanding of how the introduction of an advanced stove influences patterns of household energy use is needed. The preliminary data provided here would be useful for designing feasibility and/or pilot studies aimed at intervention efforts locally and nationally.

Fig. 1

Graphical representation of the three primary study components.

Fig. 2

Advanced stoves evaluated in Palwal, Haryana. (A) The Philips Woodstove Model HD4012. (B) The Oorja (photo courtesy First Energy, India). Both are manufactured in India.

Fig. 3

Common traditional stoves found in homes in Palwal District, Haryana. (A) The traditional stationary hearth or chullah. (B) The portable hearth, or uthaao chullah, used during inclement weather under a covering or indoors. Both (A) and (B) are made of mud and plaster. (C) A top-loading, fixed hearth made of brick and mud or haroo. (D) A portable top-loading hearth or angithi. (C) and (D) are used for simmering items for long periods of time. (D) is used during inclement weather under a covering or indoors.

Fig. 4

PM_2.5 concentrations across all study households, during a period of use of traditional stove (i.e. no use of advanced combustion stoves). Each box represents a separate subsample by location and monitoring approach. The height of each box is the interquartile range. The median concentration is marked with a solid black line. The mean concentration is marked by a diamond. The box whiskers extend to 1.5 times the interquartile range. Kitchen area and living area concentrations were measured for at least 1,440 min; personal concentration measurements were during cooking periods and lasted between 90 and 225 mins. Outdoor concentrations have been not depicted because of small sample size (n=3).

Fig. 5

Sample plots from (A) the Drager Pac7000 real-time carbon monoxide (CO) monitor and (B) the University of California Berkeley Particle and Temperature Sensor (UCB-PATS) logging data during cooking with a traditional stove. Note that peaks roughly correspond with cooking times from Fig. 6.

Fig. 6

Typical daily use pattern for a stove use monitor in a house with the Philips Stove (A) and the Oorja stove (B). Peaks in the graphs represent cooking events.

Fig. 7

Average use per day and hours of use over time by stove type. (A) shows the average number of uses per day of the Philips Stove versus the Oorja stove. (B) shows the changes in cumulative hours of use over each period. Note that both stoves start with high usage but then diverge, with both stoves being used, though at different levels. For both A and B, the length of the box is the interquartile range. The median concentration is marked with a solid black line. The mean concentration is marked by a diamond. The box whiskers extend to 1.5 times the interquartile range.