Billions of people worldwide burn animal dung, crop residues, wood and charcoal to cook their meals. And the chemicals produced and inhaled sicken or kill millions. At particular risk are women who prepare their families’ food and children 5-years-old or younger.
Up to now, most interventions have focused on improving the cookstove to lower emissions. And that would be fine, if there were enough improved cookstoves to go around. But there aren’t. In 2012, only 2.5 million improved cookstoves were distributed, improving the household air pollution situation for exactly one-half of 1 percent of the world’s biomass burners.
Two Michigan Tech student teams were at the EPA’s National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, DC.
2013 EPA P3 student competition and National Sustainable Design Expo on the National Mall in Washington DC. Design Guidance for Healthier Cooking Environments: There is a growing international effort to improve adoption of clean cookstoves in the developing world. Michigan Technological University students are designing software and building a test kitchen that can be used to evaluate cookstove technologies for indoor air emissions that takes into account local conditions. The project is using information collected in east Africa with the help of community organizations and the Peace Corps.
www.facebook.com/MTUKitchen2
www.epa.gov/ncer/p3/project_websites/2013/su835315.html
Two Michigan Tech Teams Take Sustainable Designs to Washington, DC
A Simple Solution to Air Pollution from Wood-Burning Cookstoves
Kitchen 2.0: Design Healthier Cooking Environments Video Clip