Romero-Perezgrovas Ricardo^1,, Víctor Arboleda², Mildred Linkimer², María Fernanda Romero², Sam Bentson³, Alejandra Arroyo⁴, Bert Kohlmann²

Biomass is the primary source of energy for cooking in rural Central America. The intensity of labour required to collect wood, levels of pollution resulting from incomplete burning, health problems linked to smoke inhalation, and pressure on forests are among the problems commonly associated with cooking with traditional stoves utilized in the region. Since the 1980s, improved stoves programs have been implemented in the region, but exogenous-developed models have had low adoption rates due to a lack of know-how for construction and repairments, expensive materials, and lack of understanding of local culinary traditions and culture. Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), a non-profit organization, has successfully developed two local improved stoves: the Damak model in Panama and the Mani model in Honduras. In both cases, anecdotal evidence of high rates of long-term adoption has been noted by SHI. Nonetheless, before this study, there has been no systematic evaluation of the efficiency of these two models in respect to 1) daily household wood consumption (kg); 2) particulate matter (PM_2.5 ug/m³) concentration in the kitchen, and 3) carbon monoxide (CO ppm) concentration in the kitchen when compared to the traditional stoves used in rural households of both countries. The results presented herein were generated from a study using a random representative sample of 174 stoves and a portable Indoor Air Pollutant Meter manufactured by Aprovecho Research Center (ARC). An analysis of variance processed the data under the general and mixed model frameworks. The results showed that there was a statistically significant average decrease in wood consumption per day per stove for the improved models, as well as a statistically significant average decrease in personal exposure to particulate matter and carbon monoxide for the improved models when compared to those self-same measurements generated by traditional stoves.

Central America, biomass, indoor air pollution, appropriate technology, deforestation