Centerscope

Centerscope, formerly Scope, was published by the Boston University Medical Center "to communicate the concern of the Medical Center for the development and maintenance of improved health care in contemporary society.

What is a Meal? Comparing Methods to Determine Cooking Events

WP 2013-20 November 201

What is a Meal? Comparing Methods of Auditing Carbon Offset Compliance for Fuel Efficient Cookstoves

WP 2014-19 September 201

The Effects of Fuel-Efficient Cookstoves on Fuel Use, Particulate Matter, and Cooking Practices: Results from a Randomized Trial in Rural Uganda

Smoky cookfires contribute to global climate change and kill approximately four million people annually. While many studies have examined the effects of fuel-efficient cookstoves, this study was the first to do so while selling stoves at market prices. After introducing a fuel-efficient cookstove, fuelwood use and household air particulates declined by 12% and by smaller percentages after adjusting for observer-induced bias, or the Hawthorne effect. These reductions were less than laboratory predictions and fell well short of World Health Organization pollution targets. Even when introducing a second stove, most households continued to use their traditional stoves for most cooking

What is a “Meal”? Comparing Methods Of Auditing Carbon Offset Compliance for Fuel Efficient Cookstoves

Smoke from inefficient biomass cookstoves contributes to global climate change and kills approximately four million people per year. Credits for reduced carbon emissions can potentially subsidize fuel-­‐efficient cookstoves that reduce these harms. Understanding the accuracy of different methods to monitor stove usage is necessary to accurately target carbon credits and, thus, to curtail the environmental and health damages from inefficient stoves. This paper compares five methods of measuring stove usage: stove usage monitors that continuously log stove temperature; enumerators’ observations of cooking; household food diaries, weighing fuel; and household air pollution using mean 24 hour concentrations of particulate matter. We find statistically significant positive correlations between almost all pairs of measures. While the correlations are positive, the explanatory power of each measure for another is weak. The weak correlations emphasize the importance of using multiple measures to audit the changes in stove use and related carbon offsets