New Century International

Indoor air pollution (IAP) in developing countries is an environmental challenge as well as a public health challenge. In developing countries, according to numerous publications by World Health Organization (WHO) scientists, domestic cooking and heating are creating indoor air pollution. The indoor air pollution is created by burning wood, animal dung, crop residues, and coal. The World Health organization reports note that 50% of the world population uses such materials. They are typically burnt in simple, makeshift stoves with very incomplete combustion. At higher risk are home where coal is used for domestic heating and cooking. The locally mined coal generally is mined locally with little regard to its composition. When burned (usually incompletely) in stoves with little or no ventilation it directly exposes residents to the emissions. Women (who usually do most of the cooking), young children (who help with cooking), and the elderly are at the most risk.

The lessons learned about how this health issue has been addressed can be used when it comes to coal use for electricity.

Combustion produces many toxic pollutants including he following:

• Small particulate matter
• Carbon monoxide
• Nitrous oxide
• Sulfur oxides
• Formaldehyde
• Carcinogenic polycyclic organic matter
• Elemental residues.

Enviro fuels and ways to burn clean coal domestically will have a global affect on health. The U.S. has many benefits to using coal and has clean coal options available. For undeveloped countries, they will need affordable and simple alternatives to meet their heating and cooking fuel needs.

Enviro fuels can reduce the following health problems:

• Incidences of chronic obstructive lung disease
• Acute respiratory infections in childhood (in developing countries, respiratory infections is a common cause of death among children under 5 years old)
• Low birth weight
• Increased infant and perinatal mortality
• Pulmonary tuberculosis
• Nasopharyngeal and laryngeal cancer
• Cataract formation
• Lung cancer (coal use)

Globally more than 2 billion people rely on biomass fuel as their main source of domestic energy. This has caused preventative measures to reduce exposure to IAP high on the agenda of international development and public health organizations. Specifically focused on the problem is the design and distribution of improved stoves and fuels as way to reduce these negative health impacts.

It has been estimated that a notable portion of China’s coal is used for domestic (home) energy needs. In China, about 400 million people in China are estimated to rely on coal for cooking and heating. When unprocessed coal is burned in non-vented stoves, homes ill have high levels of toxic metal and organic compounds, plus the previously mentioned pollutants. Research conducted by the US Geologic Survey and the Institute of Geochemistry at Guiyang in Guizhou Province, severe arsenic poisoning, dental and skeletal fluorosis, selenium and possibly mercury poisoning result after the domestic combustion of metal-laden coals. Coal combustion produces polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which are believed to cause or contribute to the high incidence of esophageal and lung cancers in parts of China.

There is published research that documents the same risks to millions of people in sub-Sahara Africa and India. Research conducted at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health supports the information that in India, like other developing countries, there is widespread practice of using unprocessed solid fuels (coal and biomass) for cooking and/or space heating. Since cooking is done in nearly every household nearly every day in most of the world, including areas where unprocessed solid fuels are being used, this has become a serious issue. With its large, poor, urban and rural populations still using simple solid fuels, these researchers note that the Indian population bears a significant portion of world exposure to indoor combustion products of unprocessed solid fuels. Solid fuel stoves are well known to the Indian continent (it is estimated that India may already have approximately 30% of the global household stove distribution) and would not require introduction.

Sophisticated epidemiological analysis suggests that air pollution in India would contribute between 6 to 9% of the total national burden of disease, nearly rivaling water, sanitation, and hygiene. In India, the health effects of indoor air pollution is equal to or exceeds tuberculosis, ischemic heart disease, all cancers, road accidents, or all of the “tropical” diseases combined. The health affects cannot be ignored, conservative estimates indicate 400-550 thousand premature deaths can be attributed annually to use of biomass fuels in these population groups. Acute respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, asthma, tuberculosis and cataract-causing blindness have all been associated with exposure to biomass fuel-induced IAP in India, similar to the rest of the developing world.

It is the incomplete combustion of contaminates in wood, coal, and other fuel sources that are used in typical indoor stoves that is the cause of toxicity and health problems. What does cooking in India have to do with clean coal? The fact is that technology has been developed to address the problem successfully. Specially designed stoves when used with a specific briquette-formulation help solve the problem of incomplete combustion. This results in less fuel necessary for cooking and heating. It can reduce the fuel use by one third. Enviro fuels play an important role in health.

Expanding the lessons learned to reduce indoor air pollution can help with reducing outdoor pollution and improving health, to be used when it comes to burning the solid fuel, coal to provide electricity.