article · Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Indoor air emissions from household fuels were evaluated across rural and urban homes in coastal Kenya, covering Mombasa and Taita Taveta Counties. Using multichannel silicone rubber traps combined with a low-solvent extraction technique, researchers sampled sixteen priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons predominantly in the gas phase. Indoor concentrations of these compounds were consistently higher in rural residences than in urban settings, even though ambient outdoor concentrations were greater in urban areas due to traffic. The type of cooking appliance and fuel used had a direct effect on emission levels. The greatest concentrations arose from wood combustion using traditional three-stone stoves. Measurements of benzo[a]pyrene toxic equivalents confirmed that emissions varied sharply by technology, with gas yielding undetectable levels, while kerosene, jiko, three-stone, and modified three-stone stoves produced increasingly higher toxic equivalent values.
Combustion of household fuels generates hazardous airborne contaminants that threaten human respiratory health. By measuring specific toxic compounds across common domestic cooking devices in Kenya, this research identifies which household energy choices create the greatest indoor exposure. These findings help public health officials, environmental regulators, and clean cooking initiatives identify which cooking technologies need the most urgent replacement.
This research provides applied comparative data on stove emissions that could assist clean-cookstove designers, testing laboratories, and environmental monitoring agencies evaluating household energy interventions. The testing method uses silicone rubber traps and low-solvent extraction for air sampling, representing an applied analytical workflow. However, the abstract focuses primarily on observational baseline emissions and does not present a commercial product, leaving direct commercial deployment at an early stage.
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In developing countries, household energy use is highly variable and complex, yet emissions arising from fuel combustion indoors are typically poorly quantified. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are emitted during the combustion of organic fuels such as charcoal and biomass. In the present study, multichannel polydimethylsiloxane rubber traps were used for gas-phase PAH sampling and extracted using a low-solvent volume plunger-assisted solvent extraction method. Sixteen US Environmental Protection Agency priority PAHs, primarily in the gas phase, were investigated in indoor air of rural and urban residential homes in coastal Kenya (Mombasa and Taita Taveta Counties) using typical combustion devices of each area. Average gaseous PAH concentrations per household were higher in rural (ranging 0.81-6.09 µg m<sup>-3</sup> ) compared to urban (ranging 0-2.59 µg m<sup>-3</sup> ) homes, although ambient PAH concentrations were higher in urban environments, likely attributable to traffic contributions. The impact of fuel choice and thereby combustion device on PAH emissions was very clear, with the highest concentrations of PAHs quantified from wood-burning emissions from 3-stone stoves (total PAH averages 46.23 ± 3.24 µg m<sup>-3</sup> [n = 6]). Average benzo[a]pyrene equivalent total concentrations were evaluated for the priority PAHs and ranged from not detected to 43.31, 88.38, 309.61, and 453.88 ng m<sup>-3</sup> for gas, kerosene, jiko, 3-stone, and improved 3-stone stoves, respectively. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:538-547. © 2019 SETAC.
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DOI: 10.1002/etc.4648
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