{"id":9507,"date":"2014-12-10T15:04:17","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T20:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=9507"},"modified":"2024-07-02T14:45:36","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T14:45:36","slug":"safecook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=9507","title":{"rendered":"Seeking a safer way to cook in developing countries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"From<\/a>
From left, Pam Jagger, Megan Strickland and Leena Nylander-French in Rwanda.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Public policy <\/a>professors Ashu Handa and Pam Jagger in UNC\u2019s College of Arts and Sciences<\/a> have received a $2.5 million National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences<\/a> grant to fight a very serious, but understudied health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Exposure to cookstove smoke from burning fuels such as wood and charcoal is the largest risk factor for disease and death in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

Think of the health impact this way: The smoke from cooking with a three-stone fire or charcoal stove exceeds the toxicity of smoking hundreds of cigarettes per day. Women and children are the most affected, because cooking and fuel collection remain largely their responsibility.<\/p>\n

The duo teamed up with Megan Strickland, a 2011 public policy graduate, to write the grant proposal. Until November 2014, Strickland worked for Inyenyeri, a company based in Gisenyi, Rwanda, that leases high-tech, energy-efficient cookstoves at an affordable cost of $7 per year to urban customers who agree to buy the company\u2019s clean biomass fuel pellets. Rural customers can use the stove for free in exchange for collecting the raw materials used to manufacture the fuel pellets.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Phillips gasifying cookstove with fuel pellets.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is it\u2019s very hard to get people to change their cooking behavior,\u201d Jagger said. \u201cWe are trying to understand what motivates adoption of the cookstoves. \u2026 Changing behavior has both benefits and costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inyenyeri, Strickland said, is a Kinyarwanda word that means \u201cstar\u201d or \u201cshining light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cColloquially, it can also mean a role model for someone to look up to,\u201d said Strickland, who is originally from Little Rock, Ark. \u201cInyenyeri wants to establish itself as a model for others to replicate across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

That idea of replication, of being able to take the company\u2019s business model to scale, is what excites Handa and Jagger.<\/p>\n

\"Public<\/a>
Public policy professor Ashu Handa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a surprise visit to UNC\u2019s public policy department in early 2012, Strickland proposed a crazy idea to her former professors: Would they be willing to evaluate whether these clean cookstoves were making a difference in the health of people who agree to use them? Would they be willing to closely examine Inyenyeri\u2019s work?<\/p>\n

Their grant proposal was funded in July 2014 by the NIEHS, part of the National Institutes of Health. Working with professors Leena Nylander-French and Karin Yeatts from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, <\/a>Handa and Jagger will evaluate the impact of Inyeneyri\u2019s initiative on exposure to three things: airborne contaminants, individual health and household welfare.<\/p>\n

Handa, who is on leave from UNC while working for UNICEF in Italy until summer 2015, has been increasingly involved in large-scale social programs that address poverty and human development.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, I\u2019ve come to appreciate that understanding human behavior and how to change it requires a holistic and multidisciplinary approach,\u201d he said. \u201cInyenyeri\u2019s model could really be a breakthrough in terms of making cookstoves widely available to the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jagger spent last year in Malawi researching the same issue: conducting socioeconomic, health and air quality assessments regarding cookstove use.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason it\u2019s such a big issue in sub-Saharan Africa is because there are multiple respiratory impacts \u2014 pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma,\u201d she said. \u201cThen there are other health concerns like cancer, burns and eye problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A woman wearing personal exposure monitoring equipment that kept track of her exposure to cookstove smoke in Kasumgu, Malawi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She will use what she has learned in Malawi to enhance the team\u2019s research in Rwanda. She took a fall trip to Rwanda to lay the groundwork for the project.<\/p>\n

Ipsita Das, a second-year Ph.D. student in public policy who has also studied cookstove use in India, worked with Jagger on the Malawi study and will assist the team in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite touted triple benefits \u2014 better health, forest preservation and emissions reduction \u2014 of using the improved fuels and cookstoves, their uptake and continuous use in developing countries has been very low,\u201d Das added.<\/p>\n

Handa said the opportunity to work with a former student to develop the project has been very rewarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend a lot of time in my public policy development class discussing real-world interventions to alleviate poverty and improve health,\u201d he said. \u201cMegan has been living what we talked about in class. This is a dream scenario for any college professor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strickland added that the research study would not be possible without the connections she made while a student at UNC.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow lucky is it that it just so happens that two of my former professors are among the world\u2019s leading experts in this field?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/em><\/a> about the health dangers of chronic exposure to cookstove smoke.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 By Kim Weaver Spurr \u201988<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNC public policy professors Ashu Handa and Pam Jagger will join two public health colleagues in studying the dangers of cookstove smoke in Rwanda, thanks to a $2.5 million 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