Comparative study of indoor air pollution using traditional and improved cooking stoves in rural households of Northern India

A major fraction of the rural population of India still burns biomass for domestic cooking and heating. Biomass materials such as wood, dung cakes and crop residues are burnt to produce energy for cooking. These are major sources of aerosol and gaseous pollutants in the atmosphere. Indoor measurements of gaseous species and chemical characteristics of aerosols contributed by burning biomass in traditional cooking stoves (TCS) vs. improved cooking stoves (ICS) are reported in this paper. Samples were collected from a village called Khairatpur, located in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh state. The concentrations of aerosol components and gases in the indoor air during the operation of ICS were found to be lower as compared to TCS. On an average, total concentrations of major ions were lower by 32% during ICS operation. The most significant difference was observed for SO42- aerosols (lower by 47%). Among SOx, NOx and NH3 gases, SOx showed maximum reduction (lower by 55%). Estimates of consumption of different types of biomasses showed that 621 t biomass is burnt annually by the villagers during cooking with TCS as compared to 365 t during ICS cooking. A social survey in the form of a questionnaire revealed that most of the women in the village of this study found ICS better than the TCS in terms of handling, reduced emissions, easier cooking and time 81 fuel efficiency. (C) 2014 International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.