Assessing Ambient Air Quality Response to Cookstove Intervention

KY TANNER, John Volckens, Colorado State University

     Abstract Number: 718
     Working Group: Aerosol Exposure

Abstract
In 2019, ambient particulate matter pollution and household air pollution from solid fuels were ranked the 6^th and 9^th leading risk factors for premature deaths worldwide with 4.1 and 2.3 million estimated annual deaths respectively. Many modeling studies attempt to quantify this risk that exposure to PM_2.5 from biomass burning for cooking has on premature death globally; however, estimates range widely from 370,000 to 770,000 deaths annually. This is likely because no robust field campaigns have been conducted to date providing empirical evidence validating these models’ assumptions. Specifically, the impact switching from biomass to a cleaner burning fuel has on ambient PM_2.5 concentrations locally. Therefore, this research aims to collect experimental data under real-world conditions that illustrate how a clean cookstove intervention using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) changes the concentration of ambient PM_2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter) over the course of the intervention. Four outdoor air quality samplers were spread throughout a rural village at both central and fence-line locations in Eastern Rwanda (where residents originally cooked exclusively with biomass for fuel). These samplers have collected 5-day samples of ambient air on Teflon filters and recording real-time PM2.5 concentrations each week since November 2022. They have begun monitoring the village’s transition from pure biomass burning to a growing percentage of LPG since the start of the intervention in February 2023. Preliminary data suggests a clear spike in PM_2.5 during the dinner hours with concentrations increasing on average from around 25μg/m³ to around 70 μg/m³. However, since less than 20% of the homes in the village have fully adopted LPG for daily cooking tasks it is still unclear if there is a significant decrease in ambient PM_2.5 concentrations throughout the village as a direct result of the intervention.