Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Improving Air Quality, Health and the Environment Through Household Energy Interventions in the Tibetan Plateau
EPA Grant Number: R835422Title: Improving Air Quality, Health and the Environment Through Household Energy Interventions in the Tibetan Plateau
Investigators: Baumgartner, Jill , Schauer, James J. , Wiedinmyer, Christine , Paradis, Gilles , Ezzati, Majid , Yang, Xudong
Institution: University of Minnesota , University of Wisconsin - Madison , Tsinghua University , McGill University , National Center for Atmospheric Research
Current Institution: University of Minnesota , McGill University , National Center for Atmospheric Research , Tsinghua University , University of Wisconsin - Madison
EPA Project Officer: Keating, Terry
Project Period: September 1, 2013 through August 31, 2016 (Extended to August 31, 2018)
Project Amount: $1,489,361
RFA: Measurements and Modeling for Quantifying Air Quality and Climatic Impacts of Residential Biomass or Coal Combustion for Cooking, Heating, and Lighting (2012) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Climate Change , Tribal Environmental Health Research , Air
Objective:
The overall objective of this research is to develop tools to quantify the air quality, climate and health benefits of a household energy intervention. The study will then demonstrate these tools in a novel energy innovation program in the Tibetan Plateau where a high-performing semi-gasifier cooking and water heating stove and supply of processed biomass fuel is being placed into ~200 homes through a Chinese government sponsored solid fuel intervention program. The study will integrate emissions and exposure measurements into this program that addresses cookstoves, heating stoves, and residential fuel, and applying these measurements to regional climate models and a health intervention study to quantify health and climate mitigation benefits of the intervention. The study will demonstrate a framework to quantify the benefits of real world interventions and policies aimed at reducing household solid fuel emissions. The project will leverage an existing intervention program to replace traditional fuels and stoves in 200 rural homes in the Tibetan Plateau. The project will integrate expertise of the project team members to quantify the reduction in emissions and exposures and cardiovascular impacts of the intervention, and to estimate the impact of larger-scale interventions on regional climate. The study results and their interpretation will be disseminated to policy makers and other relevant environmental and public health stakeholder groups.
Conclusions:
Main findings from indoor measurements and exposure assessment
Indoor space heating activities with solid fuel stoves make a
large contribution to indoor and outdoor PM
2
.5 (particulate
matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter) during winter and are
largely responsible for observed seasonal differences in the
frequency, duration, and timing of combustion activity.
Diurnal patterns of outdoor PM
2.5 shared similarities
with indoor diurnal pollution profiles. Daily combustion events
increased by 19 percent from summer to winter, which we attribute to
space heating. Between typical mealtimes, the proportion of
household-days with combustion events dropped to approximately 20
percent in summer but never below 45 percent in winter.
Clean stove and fuel interventions are not likely to reduce
indoor PM
2.5 to the World
Health Organization (WHO) target unless their use is exclusive and
outdoor air pollution is sufficiently low, but may still offer some
cardiovascular benefits. Only 24 percent of indoor
monitoring days with exclusive use of clean fuel stoves (e.g.,
gasifiers, LPG, electric stoves) met the WHO's indoor air quality
target, though this fraction rose to 73 percent after subtracting the
outdoor PM
2.5 contribution.
Modeled results indicate that reduced PM
2.5 through exclusive
clean fuel use can prevent 48,000 yearly premature deaths in
southwestern China, with greater reductions if local outdoor PM
2.5 is also reduced.
Main findings from exposure-response studies
E
xposure to household air pollution was associated with higher
blood pressure and central hemodynamics in older Chinese women, with
no associations observed with pulse wave velocity. Among
women ≥50 years, increased PM
2.5 exposure was
associated with higher brachial and central systolic and diastolic
blood pressure, higher pulse pressure, and lower peripheral-central
pulse pressure amplification. Among younger women, the associations
were inconsistent in the direction of effect and not statistically
significant. Similar associations were found for black carbon exposure.
Telomere shortening, which is a biomarker of biological aging
and chronic disease, may be associated with exposure to air
pollution in settings where household biomass stoves are commonly
used. Natural cubic spline models indicated a mostly linear
association between increased exposure to air pollution and shorter
relative telomere length (RTL), except at very high concentrations
where there were few observations.
Main findings of the air pollution and health impacts of the
household energy package
We did not find evidence that distribution of a
high-performing, multi-purpose semi-gasifier stove and supply of
processed biomass fuel resulted in improvements in blood pressure
(BP), central hemodynamics, or arterial stiffness among rural
Chinese women after one and a half years of follow-up.
Women who received the energy package had improvements in air
pollution, BP, and pulse pressure; however, similar or larger
improvements were observed among women without the package over the
same period.
Summer levels of particulate air pollution decreased (24-67%)
in women that received the energy package, but greater reductions
(48-70%) were observed in controls, likely because many started
using gas stoves. After adjusting for outdoor air quality,
receiving the energy package was associated with decreases in exposure
to fine PM in winter, but not summer. However, post-intervention
exposures were 1.5-3 times higher than health-based targets, likely
due to continued use of traditional stoves and outdoor air pollution.
Outdoor air quality changed very little over time.
A carefully engineered, multi-purpose semi-gasifier stove and
fuel intervention modestly contributed to overall household energy
use in rural China. Of 113 intervention homes interviewed,
79 percent of homes tried the stove, and the majority of these (92%)
continued using it 5-10 months later. One to five months after
intervention, the average proportion of days that the semi-gasifier
stove was in use was modest (40.4%), and further declined over 13 months.
Main findings from atmospheric modeling
Emissions from the residential (i.e., household energy) sector
are an important contributor to ambient
PM
2.5
pollution and disease burden in China. We estimated
that 37 percent of all premature deaths due ambient PM
2.5 exposure across
China are attributable to emissions from the residential sector. Both
space heating and cooking emissions are important, with premature
deaths associated with each of similar magnitude (182,000 from
cooking, 159,000 from heating).
Residential sector emissions from household stoves were found
to have a positive effective radiative forcing over China.
Forcing was mainly due to direct effect, with some contribution from
semi-direct effect. There was high sensitivity to uncertainty in
fraction of black carbon emitted from the residential sector.
Main findings from chemical analysis of air pollution:
Outdoor sources impact household air pollution, even when
household biomass burning is the main source. Organic
tracers specific to outdoor sources and elements not emitted by
biomass burning were detected in all household samples. Source
apportionment modeling revealed that as much as one-fifth of household
PM is derived from known outdoor sources (secondary aerosol, vehicles,
coal combustion, dust).
Household air pollution was a source of outdoor PM
2.5.
Previous source apportionment and modeling research has demonstrated
that household solid fuel combustion is a major source of ambient PM
2.5 in China, and our
source apportionment results agree well. We found that household
sources (biomass burning + food cooking) contribute about one-fifth of
wintertime ambient PM
2.5.
Both microenvironment air quality and personal activities
contribute to personal PM
2.5
exposures. Dust was higher in exposure PM
2.5 than in either
indoor or outdoor PM
2.5, in terms of both
absolute (air) concentration and fraction of PM
2.5 mass, suggesting
other routes of exposure. Dust exposures were also higher in summer,
when subjects were likely to spend more time outside, than in the winter.
Major chemical components of PM
2.5 emitted from
household stoves are influenced more by stove type than by
fuel. Traditional stove PM
2.5 emissions were
comprised mostly of organic matter and elemental carbon, while
semi-gasifier stove emissions were mostly inorganic and had very
little organic matter.
Journal Articles on this Report : 8 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 42 publications | 18 publications in selected types | All 18 journal articles |
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Baumgartner J, Clark S, Carter E, Lai A, Zhang Y, Chan M, Schauer J, Yang X. Effectiveness of a Household Energy Package in Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Personal Exposures in Rural China. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2019;53(15):9306-9316. |
R835422 (Final) |
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Brehmer C, Lai A, Clark S, Shan M, Ni K, Ezzati M, Yang X, Baumgartner J, Schauer JJ and Carter E. The oxidative potential of personal and household PM2.5 in a rural setting in southwestern china. Environmental Science and Technology 2019;53(5):2788-2798. |
R835422 (Final) |
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Clark S, Schmidt A, Carter E, Schauer J, Yang X, Ezzati M, Daskalopoulou S, Baumgartner J. Longitudinal evaluation of a household energy package on blood pressure, central hemodynamics, and arterial stiffness in China. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2019;177(108592). |
R835422 (Final) |
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Deng MS, Zhang SQ, Shan M, Li JR, Baumgartner J, Carter E and Yang XD. The impact of cookstove operation on PM2.5 and CO emissions:A comparison of laboratory and field measurements. Environmental Pollution 2018;243(B):1087-1095. |
R835422 (Final) |
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Lai A, Shan M, Deng M, Carter E, Yang X, Baumgartner J, Schauer J. Differences in chemical composition of PM 2.5 emissions from traditional versus advanced combustion (semi-gasifier) solid fuel stoves. CHEMOSPHERE 2019;233:852-861. |
R835422 (Final) |
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Lai A, Clark S, Carter E, Shan M, Ni K, Yang X, Baumgartner J, Schauer J. Impacts of stove/fuel use and outdoor air pollution on chemical composition of household particulate matter. INDOOR AIR 2020;30(2):294-305. |
R835422 (Final) |
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Loo R, Lu Q, Carter E, Liu S, Clark S, Wang Y, Baumgartner J, Tang H, Chan Q. A feasibility study of metabolic phenotyping of dried blood spot specimens in rural Chinese women exposed to Household air pollution. JOURNAL OF EXPOSURE SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EPIDEMIOLOGY 2021;31(2):328-344. |
R835422 (Final) |
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Snider G, Carter E, Clark S, Tseng J, Yang X, Ezzati M, Schauer J, Wiedinmyer C, Barmbartner J. Impacts of stove use patterns and outdoor air quality on household air pollution and cardiovascular mortality in southwestern China. ENVIRONMENTAL INTERNATIONAL 2018;177:116-124. |
R835422 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
cookstoves cardiovascular biomass semi-gasifier ChinaProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- 2017 Progress Report
- 2016 Progress Report
- 2015 Progress Report
- 2014 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
18 journal articles for this project