Determinants of household cooking fuels and their impact on women's health in rural Pakistan

Design of solar cooking models to enhance energy utilization and environment protection with their cost-benefit analysis: a case study of an institutional area in the state of Rajasthan, India

A systematic approach and methodology for financial appraisal of the Scheffler dish solar cooker has been presented in this study. An approach is applied to meet the useful cooking energy demand at a location with a high availability of DNI by a Scheffler type of 16 m2 area and the effective aperture area of 11.65 m2, weight of 400 kg, an efficiency of 40% with 980 (kg/year/ m2) steam output at 120 °C. For this analysis, 5 Scheffler dish solar cookers have been selected for preparing boiling type food like rice and pulses for 750 beneficiaries at Vivekananda Global University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Presently, the cooking energy demand is fulfilled by conventional method such as LPG fuel and it makes the system costly and hazardous in certain cases. By using solar cooking at the location, it is analyzed that the cost is significantly reduced along with other socio parameters also which shows the novelty of this study. The serving time of food is taken from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. The total number of cooked rice and pulses is calculated as 586.5 and 838.38 in 325 operating days. The performance of the Scheffler dish solar cooker is found to be higher in terms of the total number of meals cooked per annum by each cooker is 1424, and the saving of LPG per annum by the Scheffler dish cooker is estimated as 679 kg per cooker. This also contributes to improving the health of women, reducing child mortality rate and CO2 emissions. The net monetary benefit is estimated at INR 30,179.9. The payback and discounted payback periods are estimated as 5.3 years and 7.9 years, respectively. The estimated positive value of net present worth also clearly indicates the profitable application of solar cooker.

From smoke to smiles: Quantifying the happiness benefits of household cooking energy transition

Existing studies that assess the impact of cooking with dirty solid fuels on human beings tend to underestimate the adverse impact on welfare. This paper aims to address this research gap by examining the happiness benefits of transitioning from solid fuel to cleaner alternatives. Using an extensive panel dataset from China, which includes 150,248 observations collected from 43,251 survey respondents interviewed between 2010 and 2018, this study employs various complementary methodologies, such as the fixed-effect model, propensity score matching, and time-varying difference-in-differences, to overcome challenges related to treatment selection bias and unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity. Further, life satisfaction approach is used to evaluate the economic benefits of cooking energy transition. Our findings indicate that switching from firewood to LPG/natural gas/gas can significantly enhance individual subjective well-being (SWB). Although the improvement brought about by electricity is slightly lower than that of LPG/natural gas/gas, it remains substantial. Notably, the positive effect is more pronounced among specific demographic groups, including females, rural residents, and low-income families. Moreover, these well-being improvements can manifest quickly and persist many years before any noticeable enhancements in physical health. This effect further amplifies over time. However, biogas shows no significant effect on SWB. These findings underscore the importance of clean fuels that contribute to increased happiness, as they are more likely to be consistently adopted. Finally, we estimate that the economic benefits of the well-being improvements resulting from the use of LPG/natural gas/gas and electricity range between $5.15 and $5.44 per day.

Household unclean fuel use, indoor pollution and self-rated health: risk assessment of environmental pollution caused by energy poverty from a public health perspective

The lack of access to clean energy remains one of the major challenges in the global energy sector. Access to clean, sustainable and affordable energy, outlined in the seventh Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7) of the United Nations, plays a crucial role in advancing health (SDG 3), as unclean cooking energy may endanger people's health by causing air pollution. However, due to endogeneity problems such as reverse causality, the health consequences of environmental pollution caused by unclean fuel usage are difficult to be scientifically and accurately evaluated. This paper aims to systematically assess the health cost of unclean fuel usage based on tackling endogeneity, using the data from Chinese General Social Survey. The ordinary least squares model, ordered regression methods, instrumental variable approach, penalized machine learning methods, placebo test, and mediation models are applied in this research. Analytical results demonstrate that households' unclean fuel use significantly damages people's health. Specifically, the use of dirty fuel leads to an average of about a one-standard-deviation decline in self-rated health, demonstrating its notable negative effect. The findings are robust to a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. The impact mechanism is that unclean fuel usage reduces people's self-rated health through increasing indoor pollution. Meanwhile, the negative effect of dirty fuel use on health has significant heterogeneity among different subgroups. The consequences are more prominent for the vulnerable groups who are female, younger, living in rural areas and older buildings, with lower socio-economic status and uncovered by social security. Therefore, necessary measures should be taken to improve energy infrastructure to make clean cooking energy more affordable and accessible as well as to enhance people's health. Besides, more attention should be paid to the energy needs of the above specific vulnerable groups faced with energy poverty.

Exploring the links between indoor air pollutants and health outcomes in South Asian countries: a systematic review

Indoor air pollution (IAP) has adverse effects on the health of people, globally. The objective of this systematic review was to present the range of health problems studied in association with indoor air pollutants in South Asian countries. We searched five databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and CAB Direct for articles published between the years 2000 and 2020. We retrieved 5,810 articles, out of which we included 90 articles in our review. Among South Asian countries, only five countries have published results related to relationship between indoor air pollutants and adverse health conditions. All studies have shown adversity of indoor air pollutants on human's health. We found indoor solid fuel burning as a key source of indoor air pollution in the included studies, while women and children were most affected by their exposure to solid fuel burning. More than half of the studies accounted particulate matter responsible for indoor air pollution bearing negative health effects. In the included studies, eyes and lungs were the most commonly affected body organs, exhibiting common symptoms like cough, breathing difficulty and wheezing. This might have developed into common conditions like respiratory tract infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and eye cataract. In addition to promote research in South Asian countries, future research should focus on novel digital ways of capturing effects of indoor air pollutants among vulnerable segments of the population. As a result of this new knowledge, public health agencies should develop and test interventions to reduce people's exposure levels and prevent them to develop adverse health outcomes.

Household energy stacking and structures in Pakistan - Results from a multiple-energy study in Azad Kashmir and Punjab

Solid fuel use (SFU) is common in most developing countries and would release many hazardous air pollutants posing high risks on human health. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study highlighted risks associated with household SFU in Pakistan, however, high uncertainties prevail because of scanty data on SFU and unaccounted energy stacking. This study conducted a field campaign aiming at collecting first-hand data on household energy mix in Pakistan. The first survey was in Punjab and Azad Kashmir, and revealed that stacked energy use was pervasive, especially for cooking. The stacking was found to be much more obvious in SFU households (defined as those using SFU dominantly) compared to those non-SFU. There were significantly substantial differences between Azad Kashmir and Punjab because of distinct resources available and economic conditions. Woody materials comprised up to nearly 70% in Azad Kashmir, but in Punjab, gas was frequently used for cooking. Only investigating primary household energy would probably overestimate main energy types that being used for a longer time but underestimated other supplements, suggesting the preference of multiple-energy surveys in household energy studies.

Modeling the impact of energy poverty on income poverty, health poverty, educational poverty, and environmental poverty: a roadmap towards environmental sustainability

Energy poverty has gained considerable attention worldwide, adversely affecting income, education, health, and the environment. However, no study has examined the linkages among these dimensions and especially during COVID-19 in the Pakistani perspective. To bridge this research gap, we scrutinized the relationship among these variables to measure the hypotheses. The study analyzed the survey data collected from university students to meet the research objectives. We employed SPSS 26 for statistical description and correlation analysis and AMOS 26 to construct structural equation modeling to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings disclose that COVID-19 pandemic boosts energy poverty in Pakistan. Moreover, energy poverty positively and significantly influences income poverty, health poverty, educational poverty, and environmental poverty. Finally, relevant practical suggestions are provided based on the study findings.

The psychological status mediates the effect of indoor air pollution on recurrent spontaneous abortion

BACKGROUND

Indoor air pollution (IAP) exposure and psychological status have been recognized as important risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes, but their mediating effects on recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) have not been analyzed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the association between IAP and RSA and to examine the mediating effect of psychological status on their association.

METHODS

This study included 830 RSA cases and 2156 controls in Gansu province, China. The Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) questionnaires were used to collect information on participants' psychological status. The IAP exposure was collected by the survey on cooking fuel use, kitchen ventilation characteristics, cooking styles, and indoor smoking, etc. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the associations between IAP exposure and RSA. The mediation analysis was used to evaluate the mediation effects of IAP and psychological status on RSA while controlling for confounding.

RESULTS

Among these cases, 16.87% cooked with unclean cooking fuel (UCF) and 37.00% lacked cooking ventilation, which was much higher than the controls. Active smoking and the use of UCF were associated with RSA, with an odds ratio (OR) of 3.374 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.510-7.541] and 1.822 (95% CI: 1.328-2.500), respectively. We found that the use of a range hood was a protective factor for RSA, with an OR of 0.590 (95% CI: 0.463-0.752). There was a significant mediation effect of depression on the association between IAP and RSA, which accounted for 5.61%-9.22% of the total effect of IAP on RSA.

CONCLUSION

The IAP may be an important risk factor for RSA, which may be intensified by the poor psychological status, and the use of ventilation equipment when cooking is a protective factor for RSA.

Household clean energy consumption and health: Theoretical and empirical analysis

The impact of energy consumption on health has become a widely debated topic around the world. However, much of the current research on this topic lacks a theoretical basis. As a result, this paper employs both theoretical and empirical analysis to investigate the impact of household clean energy consumption on residents' health. First, based on the theories of health economics and energy economics, this paper believes that the usage of clean energy can improve the health of residents. Then, the sample for this study is comprised of data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, and the Order Probit Model is applied for the empirical analysis. The outcomes of basic regression, robustness testing, and the treatment of endogenous factors reveal that the usage of clean energy has greatly benefited the health of residents. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis shows that long-term use of clean energy greatly improved the health of non-religious people and had a more pronounced impact on the health of women and low-income residents. In addition, the mechanistic analysis indicates that subjective happiness and air quality played a partial mediating role in the impact of cleaner energy consumption on health. Finally, cleaner household energy reduced the prevalence of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, lung disease, asthma, and depression. The conclusion of this paper supports the view of some existing literature, and several policy recommendations are made based on the research findings.

How Does Clean Energy Consumption Affect Women's Health: New Insights from China

The United Nations (UN) has identified the promotion of cleaner energy and improving women's health as two important elements in achieving the global sustainable development goals. However, the impact of household clean energy consumption on women's health needs to be further analyzed and improved based on new methods, new data, and new perspectives. This paper used the data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study as the sample, and the Ordered Probit model, the instrumental variable (IV) approach, the conditional mixed process (CMP) method, and the mechanism analysis model were applied to empirically investigate the impact of cleaner household energy consumption on women's health. The findings are the following: (1) It is found that cleaner household energy consumption improved women's health, and after selecting "respondent's regions of residence" as an IV to overcome endogenous issues, the estimated results remained significant. (2) The mechanistic estimation showed that air quality, social contact, and well-being play a mediating role in the effects of cleaner household energy consumption on women's health, while digital ability plays a moderating role in the cleaner household energy consumption impact on women's health. (3) This study further explored that cleaner household energy consumption significantly reduced the likelihood of women being diagnosed with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cancer, lung disease, asthma, and depression. The conclusion of this paper that "cleaner household energy can enhance the level of women's health" supports the viewpoints of some present literature. At the same time, this paper puts forward four policy recommendations based on the research conclusions.

Drivers of household demand for cooking energy: A case of Central Uganda

In Uganda, the total primary household energy consumption is mainly biomass. Lack of empirical information remains a daunting challenge to operationalization of strategies and policies aimed at reducing unsustainable energy use. This study specifically determined household demand for different cooking energy sources (briquettes, charcoal and firewood). Data were collected from a sample of 235 households with the help of pretested structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR). From the econometric analysis, results revealed that briquettes demand was significantly influenced by fuel expenditure, briquette price, gender of household head, main occupation and source of fuel. Further, charcoal demand was influenced by fuel expenditure, household size, charcoal price, district and fuel restriction. On the other hand, demand for firewood was influenced by household income, firewood price, fuel expenditure, household size and source of the fuel. From our findings, it is recommended that tailored trainings on sustainable exploitation of biomass resources for energy supply should be conducted across the country. In addition, there is need for such trainings to target women, who are the decision makers with respect to household energy supply. Lastly the study recommends the need for low-cost briquetting technologies that would reduce its price to levels that are competitive to charcoal and firewood.

Risk Preference, Health Risk Perception, and Environmental Exposure Nexus: Evidence from Rural Women as Pig Breeders, China

Rural women are an integral part of the agricultural economy. Still, their exposure to environmental pollution, especially in the context of risk preference and health risk perception, has not gained much attention in the existing literature. So to explore this notion, a survey and experimental data of 714 rural Chinese women as pig breeders are taken, we innovatively evaluate the degree of environmental exposure from the pre-exposure, in-exposure, post-exposure intervention of women breeders, and two-stage least squares (2SLS) method is employed to address the endogeneity issue between health risk perception and environmental exposure. The results show that rural women breeders suffer from severe environmental exposure, and the degree of environmental exposure is up to 72.102(Min = 0, Max = 100). Risk preference also emerges as a crucial determinant behind their environmental exposure, but health risk perception significantly deters the degree of environmental exposure. The health risk perception can offset risk preference effects on women breeders' environmental exposure by 15.15%. Moreover, considering the heterogeneity of the breeding scale, it is found that the impact of risk preference and health risk perception on women breeders' environmental exposure is an inverted U-shaped relationship, i.e., the results are at the turning stage when the breeding scale is 31-40 heads. Based on the empirical findings, the study offers guidelines for policymakers to enhance awareness amongst women breeders regarding health and pollution and encourage them to opt for environment-friendly breeding. Moreover, this research also has substantial guiding significance for related research on environmental exposure of rural women in other developing countries.

The Non-Linear Effects of Energy Efficiency Gains on the Incidence of Energy Poverty

Energy poverty is defined as insufficient access to modern energy resources which are relatively cleaner than the traditionally utilized ones. In this regard, the incidence of energy poverty is particularly higher in the cases of the developing countries across the globe. Accordingly, the chronic energy poverty issues in the developing countries within Sub-Saharan Africa have become a major socioeconomic and environmental concern for the associated governments. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the effects of energy efficiency gains and shocks to other key macroeconomic factors on energy poverty in the context of selected Sub-Saharan African nations. In this study, we measure energy poverty in terms of the lack of access to clean cooking fuels and technologies for the population of the selected Sub-Saharan African countries. The overall findings from the common correlated effects panel regression analysis reveal that energy efficiency gains initially aggravate the energy poverty situation but improve it later on; consequently, a U-shaped relationship between energy efficiency and access to clean cooking fuels and technologies is evidenced. Besides, the predicted threshold levels of energy efficiency are observed to be higher than the average energy efficiency level of the Sub-Saharan African nations. Moreover, the results also portray that economic growth, carbon dioxide emissions, foreign direct investment inflows, and international trade are effective in reducing energy poverty. Conversely, financial development is witnessed to be ineffective in influencing the incidence of energy poverty in this region.

Lung Features in Individuals with Biomass Smoke Exposure Characterized by CT Scan and Changes in Pulmonary Function

Background and Objective

To determine the effects of BSE (biomass smoke exposure) on pulmonary and non-pulmonary changes in patients with COPD compared with normal individuals.

Methods

Using a cohort, we recruited 16 healthy individuals with BSE (BSE normal), 19 patients with BSE+COPD, 13 healthy individuals with cigarette smoke exposure (CSE normal), 25 patients with CSE+COPD, and 25 healthy controls. Patients with GOLD stage I and II COPD were included. Baseline data (demographic data, BSE or CSE, lung function, and CT findings) and follow-up lung function data were collected. CT parameters of emphysema, pulmonary small vessels, airway remodeling, pectoralis muscles, and erector spinae muscle were measured.

Results

Individuals with BSE were mainly women (32/35, 91.43%). Compared with the CSE+COPD group, the BSE+COPD group demonstrated slower lung function decline, increased lower lung emphysema, narrower airway lumen dimensions and increased airway wall thickening in the moderate and small airways (all P<0.05). Compared with healthy controls, the CSE normal and BSE normal groups exhibited significant reductions in pulmonary small vessel area and obvious airway remodeling in small airways (P<0.05). Compared with the BSE normal group, the BSE+COPD group showed significantly more severe emphysema and airway remodeling, as well as reduced left pectoralis major muscle area (all P<0.05).

Conclusion

Healthy individuals with BSE had reduced pulmonary small vessel area and evidence of airway remodeling; patients with BSE and COPD showed more severe emphysema, airway remodeling, and reductions in pectoralis major muscle area.

Clinical Trial Registration

ChiCTR-OO-14004264.