Delivering affordable gas stoves and household health education to low-income families exposed to toxic levels of woodsmoke

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Investigator: Lisa Thompson, RN, PhD, FNP

Location(s): Guatemala

Description

Household air pollution (HAP) from burning wood, charcoal, dung, agricultural waste and other solid biomass cooking fuels affects 2.7 billion people worldwide – 38% of humanity – and causes 4 million premature deaths a year. That’s more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) combined. Exposure to HAP is associated with pneumonia, COPD, lung cancer, TB, cardiovascular disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes and cataracts. This project is the first social enterprise to offer market-based affordable gas stoves to low-income families exposed to toxic levels of woodsmoke in Guatemala. This project’s novel approach will train women entrepreneurs to sell liquid petroleum gas (LPG) stoves and provide education about reducing exposures to HAP. The main goal of the pilot study is to determine whether a market-based model for liquid petroleum gas (LPG) stove adoption and household education will lead to adoption, uptake and sustained use of LPG stoves. An additional goal is to provide educational messages targeting reduction in exposures to household air pollution (HAP) among households that are not able to replace solid fuel (e.g. wood) stoves with LPG stoves.