Dataset Information

Household fuel mixes in peri-urban and rural Ecuador: Explaining the context of LPG, patterns of continued firewood use, and the challenges of induction cooking.

ABSTRACT: Nationwide transitions from cooking with solid fuels to clean fuels promise substantial health, climate, and environmental benefits. For decades, Ecuador has invested heavily in consumption subsidies for liquified petroleum gas (LPG), a leading clean fuel. With the goal of understanding household energy use in a context where LPG is ubiquitous and cheap, we administered 808 household surveys in peri-urban and rural communities in Coastal and Andean Ecuadorian provinces. We assess cooking fuel patterns after long-term LPG access and the reach of induction stoves promoted through a recent government program. Nearly all participants reported using LPG for more than a decade and frequent, convenient access to highly subsidized LPG. Nonetheless, half of rural households and 20% of peri-urban households rely on firewood to meet specific household energy needs, like space heating or heating water for bathing. Induction was rare and many induction owners reported zero use because the required equipment had never been installed by electricity companies, their stove had broken, or due to fears of high electricity costs. Our discussion is instructive for other countries because of Ecuador's long-standing clean fuel policies, robust LPG market and standardized cylinder recirculation model, and promotion of induction stoves.

SUBMITTER: Gould CF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7365656 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Household fuel mixes in peri-urban and rural Ecuador: Explaining the context of LPG, patterns of continued firewood use, and the challenges of induction cooking.

Gould Carlos F CF Schlesinger Samuel B SB Molina Emilio E Bejarano Miryan L ML Valarezo Alfredo A Jack Darby W DW

Energy policy 20191104

Nationwide transitions from cooking with solid fuels to clean fuels promise substantial health, climate, and environmental benefits. For decades, Ecuador has invested heavily in consumption subsidies for liquified petroleum gas (LPG), a leading clean fuel. With the goal of understanding household energy use in a context where LPG is ubiquitous and cheap, we administered 808 household surveys in peri-urban and rural communities in Coastal and Andean Ecuadorian provinces. We assess cooking fuel pa ...[more]

PMID: 32675905

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:The Cameroon government has set a target that, by 2030, 58% of the population will be using Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a cooking fuel, in comparison with less than 20% in 2014. The National LPG Master Plan (Master Plan) was developed for scaling up the LPG sector to achieve this target. OBJECTIVES:This study aimed to estimate the potential impacts of this planned LPG expansion (the Master Plan) on population health and climate change mitigation, assuming primary, sustained use of LPG for daily cooking. METHODS:We applied existing and developed new mathematical models to calculate the health and climate impacts of expanding LPG primary adoption for household cooking in Cameroon over two periods: a) short-term (2017-2030): Comparing the Master Plan 58% target with a counterfactual LPG adoption of 32% in 2030, in line with current trends; and b) long-term (2031-2100, climate modeling only), assuming Cameroon will become a mature and saturated LPG market by 2100 (73% adoption, based on Latin American countries). We compared this with a counterfactual adoption of 41% by 2100, in line with current trends. RESULTS:By 2030, successful implementation of the Master Plan was estimated to avert about 28,000 (minimum=22,000, maximum=35,000) deaths and 770,000 (minimum=580,000 maximum=1?million) disability-adjusted life years. For the same period, we estimated reductions in pollutant emissions of more than a third in comparison with the counterfactual, leading to a global cooling of -0.1?milli?°C in 2030. For 2100, a cooling impact from the Master Plan leading to market saturation (73%) was estimated to be -0.70?milli?°C in comparison with to the counterfactual, with a range of -0.64 to -0.93?milli?°C based on different fractions of nonrenewable biomass. DISCUSSION:Successful implementation of the Master Plan could have significant positive impacts on population health in Cameroon with no adverse impacts on climate. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4899.

Project description:BackgroundHousehold air pollution (HAP) due to biomass cooking fuel use is an important risk factor for a range of diseases, especially among adult women who are primary cooks, in India. About 80% of rural households in India use biomass fuel for cooking. The aim of this study is to estimate the attributable cases (AC) for four major diseases/conditions associated with biomass cooking fuel use among adult Indian women.MethodsWe used the population attributable fraction (PAF) method to calculate the AC of chronic bronchitis, tuberculosis (TB), cataract, and stillbirths due to exposure to biomass cooking fuel. A number of data sources were accessed to obtain population totals and disease prevalence rates. A meta-analysis was conducted to obtain adjusted pooled odds ratios (ORs) for strength of association. Using this, PAF and AC were calculated using a standard formula. Results were presented as number of AC and 95% confidence intervals (CI).ResultsThe fixed effects pooled OR obtained from the meta-analysis were 2.37 (95% CI: 1.59, 3.54) for chronic bronchitis, 2.33 (1.65, 3.28) for TB, 2.16 (1.42, 3.26) for cataract, and 1.26 (1.12, 1.43) for stillbirths. PAF varied across conditions being maximum (53%) for chronic bronchitis in rural areas and least (1%) for cataract in older age and urban areas. About 2.4 (95% CI: 1.4, 3.1) of 5.6 m cases of chronic bronchitis, 0.3 (0.2, 0.4) of 0.76 m cases of TB, 5.0 (2.8, 6.7) of 51.4 m cases of cataract among adult Indian women and 0.02 (0.01, 0.03) of 0.15 m stillbirths across India are attributable to HAP due to biomass cooking fuel. These estimates should be cautiously interpreted in the light of limitations discussed which relate to exposure assessment, exposure characterization, and age-specific prevalence of disease.ConclusionsHAP due to biomass fuel has diverse and major impacts on women's health in India. Although challenging, incorporating the agenda of universal clean fuel access or cleaner technology within the broader framework of rural development will go a long way in reducing disease burden.

Project description:Background: Approximately 3 billion people, worldwide, rely primarily on biomass for cooking. This study aimed to investigate the association between respiratory symptoms among women in charge of household cooking and the type of fuel used for cooking. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey was conducted. A total of 1705 women that were randomly selected, completed the survey. We also performed a bivariate and a multivariate analysis to verify the possible associations between respiratory symptoms in women in charge of household cooking and the type of cooking fuel used. Results: Dry cough, breathing difficulties, and throat irritation frequencies were statistically high in biomass fuel users when compared to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) users. It was also the case for some chronic respiratory symptoms, such as sputum production, shortness of breath, wheezing, wheezing with dyspnea, wheezing without a cold, waking up with shortness of breath, waking up with coughing attacks, and waking up with breathing difficulty. After adjustment for the respondents' and households' characteristics; dry cough, breathing difficulties, sneezing, nose tingling, throat irritation, chronic sputum production, wheezing, wheezing with dyspnea, wheezing without a cold, waking up with shortness of breath, waking up with coughing attacks, and waking up with breathing difficulty were symptoms that remained associated to biomass fuel compared to LPG. Women who used charcoal reported the highest proportion of all the chronic respiratory symptoms compared to the firewood users. However, this difference was not statistically significant except for the wheezing, waking up with coughing attacks, and waking up with breath difficulty, after adjustment. Conclusion: Exposure to biomass smoke is responsible for respiratory health problems in women. Charcoal, which is often considered as a clean fuel compared to other biomass fuels and often recommended as an alternative to firewood, also presents health risks, including increased respiratory morbidity in women. Effective and efficient energy policies are needed to accelerate the transition to clean and sustainable energies.

Dataset Information

Household fuel mixes in peri-urban and rural Ecuador: Explaining the context of LPG, patterns of continued firewood use, and the challenges of induction cooking.

Publications

Household fuel mixes in peri-urban and rural Ecuador: Explaining the context of LPG, patterns of continued firewood use, and the challenges of induction cooking.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets