Impacts of a Cookstove Intervention in Urban Zambia on Cooks’ Personal Exposure to Carbon Monoxide and Particulate Matter
STEPHANIE PARSONS, Wesley Hayes, Joseph Pedit, Logan Richardson, Pamela Jagger, Andrew Grieshop,
North Carolina State University Abstract Number: 412
Working Group: Aerosol Exposure
AbstractSolid fuel use for cooking results in poor indoor air quality. Various private enterprises distribute alternative technologies to address this through improved combustion performance. We conducted a stove intervention trial in Lusaka, Zambia, where charcoal is the primary fuel (89%) in most households, in collaboration with two stove distribution companies in four neighborhoods, two with existing use of alternative stoves (Matero, Kamanga) and two with traditional stoves and marketing of alternative stoves between baseline and endline (Kalingalinga, Ngombe). We measured carbon monoxide (CO, 496 baseline, 271 endline) and particulate matter (PM
2.5, 68 baseline, 31 endline) personal exposure of cooks in these neighborhoods. Cooks wore Lascar CO monitors and MicroPEM (baseline) and Atmotube Pro (endline) PM
2.5 monitors at breathing height for 24 hours. We compared Atmotube and MicroPEM performance via stationary and personal exposure collocations. Atmotube collocation averages were on average within 7.0% of MicroPEM gravimetric filter measurements (n=2) but the average R
2 for collocations was 0.18. Endline pollutant exposures were approximately 50% of baseline exposures across all neighborhoods, with Matero cooks having the lowest 24-hour average CO exposure in both phases (4 ppm). 24-hour PM
2.5 exposures were consistent, but above health guidelines, for all neighborhoods both during baseline (97 +/- 61 μg m
-3) and endline (41 +/- 28 μg m
-3 ). Cooks who stopped using alternative stoves between baseline and endline had the smallest difference in CO exposure, suggesting disadoption had a negative impact on exposure. Adoption of alternative stoves was not associated with an impact. Diurnal trends were similar across neighborhoods but differed between pollutants. CO peaked at mealtimes while PM
2.5 peaked in the morning and evening. Diurnal PM
2.5 exposure was similar to ambient trends from PurpleAir monitors in Kabwe (baseline) and Lusaka, Zambia (endline), suggesting exposure is dominated by regional background levels rather than cooking.