Reducing indoor air pollution in rural households in Kenya

Smoke and Health Project

A Practical Action study and project providing practical solutions to the problem of indoor air pollution in developing countries

Independent research indicates that indoor air pollution is a contributory cause of around two million deaths in developing countries. Acute respiratory infections, ear and eye problems, breathlessness, chest pains, headaches and giddiness are just some of the symptoms that poor woman and children suffer in their rural homes. The cause: smoke from cooking.

Practical Action's Kenya Smoke and Health Project provides a model to reduce the smoke by as much as 77%.

Around 80% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa depend on biomass – wood, dung and crop residues – for domestic energy. But burning these fuels in enclosed spaces results in indoor air pollution.

The project, involving 50 rural households in Kajiado and Western Kenya, devised appropriate technology to reduce pollution in people's kitchens. Results showed that the introduction of smoke hoods, eaves, windows and improved, fuel efficient stoves can reduce these damaging particles by approximately two thirds.

Hellen, the field supervisor, calibrates a particulate monitor before it is taken to one of the households. (photo: N Bruce)

The project identified that the levels of smoke particles in these rural homes is, in most cases, more than 100 times greater than the acceptable level of 50 micrograms of smoke particles per cubic metre suggested by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Readings were taken in the cooking area of each home, on two occasions before the smoke hoods were introduced, and on two occasions after the technology was installed. The cooks' exposure to carbon monoxide was measured independently.

Statistical analyses of the results show that the introduction of the hoods produced an average reduction of health-damaging particles in the house of 75% and in carbon monoxide, of 77%. The results from the cooks' personal monitors gave an improvement in carbon monoxide exposure of 35%.

Where the households selected eaves spaces, windows and stoves, the reduction in smoke particles was 62%; and other benefits included increased daylight and more pleasant working conditions.

The project also identified that the use of smoke hoods and other forms of technology not only improved people's health, but also reduced drudgery, saved money and increased people's comfort.

Refa, the husband of a project woman, who used to suffer from asthma attacks before the technology was put in place, told us that he used to steer clear of the kitchen before, but he is now willing to assist his wife in some domestic tasks. Nowadays he wakes up at 5.30am, puts his bathing water on the fire, then goes to bathe as he leaves the tea getting ready on the fire. His wife is now relieved from waking up early and doing all the household chores by herself.

The new windows in their houses have allowed Kajiado women to do beadwork in their homes, while their children can do their homework. (photo: N Bruce)

For Refa's wife, less soot on walls, ceilings, hair, sheets, children's books and clothes makes it easier for her to wash her children, do the housework and light the fire. The interventions also help her cook faster ... and any fuel can be used with the smoke hood so the family can stay longer in the house, cook food faster and watch over their livestock through the windows.

DFID is providing funds from its Energy Knowledge and Research Budget for ITDGPractical Action to disseminate lessons learnt and instigate similar work in urban Kenya, Sudan and Nepal.

or read a case study in Energy: People Stories

Smoke, health and household energy

Volume 1: Participatory methods for design, installation, monitoring and assessment of smoke alleviation technologies

This publication describes a UK-Government funded research project done by ITDG in three very different communities. The project has worked with around 30 households in each country, comprising:

  • a peri-urban district in Kenya
  • a village community in a high cold region in Nepal
  • a community of displaced persons around Kassala in Sudan.

The project worked with communities to identify, install and monitor sustainable technologies to alleviate smoke. This led to very different solutions in each country. In Kenya, a wide spectrum of options from very low cost ‘fireless cookers’ to metal smoke hoods was adopted. In Nepal, space heating is needed, and insulation, improved stoves and smoke hoods have been researched. In Sudan, LPG stoves were universally adopted, and the project has led to nearly 1000 households adopting this cleaner fuel.

The project is now in a second phase, developing the interventions that have proved popular but have not shown the levels of smoke reduction required, and scaling up those that have been successful through commercial routes. Partnerships and collaboration have been vital to the project, and as the work enters this ‘scaling up’ phase, these early relationships are proving to be even more valuable.

This publication tells the story of how the project is working with communities and what it has achieved.

Read summary and download publication ...

Read more about household energy in ITDGPractical Action's journal Boiling Point

ITDGPractical Action East Africa's energy programme

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