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Mitigating Noxious Gases Produced by Traditional Cooking Methods

Abstract Forgenerations, rural village residents in(imachalPradeshhaveused traditional cook stoves, or chulhas , which rely on irewood.Ourprojectaimedtomitigatethegasproductioncausedbythisfuelandtoalleviatethenegativehealtheffects.Wedesignedanimprovedcookstoveprototypewithventilation.Localwomentestedourproto‐type and provided feedback on the design, usability, and ef iciency.Finally,wemadeapamphletof recommendations for thecommuni‐tiestomitigatethesmokeandtoxicgaseswithintheirhomes.

An Interactive Qualifying Project/Interdisciplinary Sociotechnical Project submitted to:

Team Members:AndrewBaker,WP)KimberlyCodding,WP)VipulGupta,))TVivekSharma,))TShivaVerma,))TMandyZhang,WP)

Project Advisors: Dr.RajeshGhosh,))TDr.RikRaniKoner,))TDr.StephenMcCauley,WP)Dr.)ngridShockey,WP)Dr.RamnaThakur,))T

2

Cooking and Heating Practices in Northern India )nmuchof northern )ndia, rural populationscontinuetousetraditionalfuelsources,primari‐ly irewood.Thoughresidentsrelyonthiseffec‐tive and easily accessible fuel, it releases toxicgases,suchascarbonmonoxide,whichcontrib‐utetoroughly , deathsperyearin)ndiaalone Lakshmi,Virdi,Thakur,etal., .Re‐searchhasfoundthatexposuretothesegasesisalsoindirectlyaccountableforarangeofdiseas‐es such as chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, andother acute respiratory and eye infectionsSood, . )nthesestudies,womenandchil‐dren are identi ied as the most at risk due tolong‐term exposure in their homes Parikh,. The levels of noxious gas has sparked avarietyofproposedsolutions includingalterna‐tive power sources, stove tops, and heatingmethods.Despitesubstantialpromiseof the in‐novations, the targeted populations maintaintheir preference and reliance on traditionalmethods,thuscontinuingtheexposure Jeuland,Bhojvaid,Lewis,etal., .The District of Mandi, )ndia, hosts a largenumberofruralvillageswhoseresidentsusethetraditionalmudandbrickcookstovesknownaschulhas seeFigure Jeuland,Bhojvaid,Lew‐is,etal., .Overthecourseofsevenweeksinthisregion,weexploredoptionsforbasicven‐tilation that could be an effective yet simpleamendment to existing cook stoves. The goalwastomanagethenoxiousgasesproduced

Figure1.Traditionalchulha(Baker,2016)throughtraditionalcookingmethodsandtomit‐igate the effects on household residents. Tomeetthisgoal,weoutlinedthefollowingobjec‐tives: tounderstandtherisksandlimitationswith current cooking and ventilation practices,todesignandbuildimprovedcookstoveandventilationprototypes,and togathertestda‐ta and feedback to develop recommendationsforthecommunities.Theseobjectivesestablishedadeeperunder‐standingofregionalpreferencesinordertoap‐propriatelyandeffectivelyreducenoxiousgasesinparallelwithraisingawarenessforsaferprac‐ticesinthecommunities.

Traditional Cooking and Ventilation Practices and their Impacts on Residential Health Before performing our on‐site ieldwork, wecompleted background research to identify thecurrent methods of cooking and ventilation intheregion,aswellastoassesstherelatedissuesandanypossibleexistingalternatives. Community Resources )nordertobetterunderstandthescopeoftheproject, it is important to recognize that stake‐holders using traditional stoves are situated insmallandoftenremotevillages. Whilepartsofthe Mandi District are urban, the region hasaround villages, sometimes consisting ofjustforty‐threehomes seeFigure Censusof)ndia, .

Figure2.VillageinMandiDistrict(Codding,2016)

Traditionalbuildingtechniquesinthesecom‐munities rely on locally sourced materials in‐cludingwood, slate, and cement. Typical struc‐tures featurewood framing,withcementwalls,aslateroof,andacement loor.Thecookingare‐as are sometimes detached from the home butare constructed with similar material with theexceptionofmud‐coatedwalls.These structures, however, present certainlimitations.Thereisnocentralheatintradition‐al(imachalibuildings,andconventionalelectricappliancesarerare.Accordingtothe)ndianNa‐tionalCensusof , %ofhouseholdsinthestate of (imachal Pradesh rely on irewood asfuelforheatingandcooking TheRegistrarGen‐eral & Census Commissioner, . Mosthouseholdsgatherwoodonadailybasistofueltheir chulhas N)C (imachal Pradesh, .(owever, as noted in numerous studies,cookingwithsolidfuels biomasssuchaswood,cropresides,dung,charcoal,andcoal overopenires or in simplestoves exposes house‐holdmembers to dailypollutant concentra‐tions that lie betweenthose of second‐handsmoke and activesmoking Pope et al., ;SmithandPeel . The openstove surface does not include a chimney andkitchenwindowsareoftenplaced too far awayfromthecookingarea toactasnaturalventila‐tors.

Health Risks and Guidelines )n this scenario,whereventilation is lacking,thelargestandmostdirectlyaffectedhouseholdmembersarewomen,astheyaretheonesmostexposed to the noxious gases and smoke pro‐duced through traditional cooking practices.Across )ndia, , women die annually fromchronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD as a result of long‐term exposure to solid bio‐mass fuel gases within their homesBalakrishnan, Ramaswamy, Sambadam, et al,. These gases contaminate the home andcauseadversehealtheffectswhenreleasedintoa con inedareawithpoorventilation.Commonconditions range from acute respiratory infec‐tions to eye infections to chronic health issues,suchascataracts,cardiovasculardisease,chron‐ic lung disease, pneumonia, tuberculosis, andproblemswithpregnancy Epstein,Bates,Arora,etal, ;Parikh, .The science behind these practices is well‐known.Anycombustionreactionfueledbysolidbiomassfuelshasthepotentialtoreleaseharm‐fulchemicalsorparticlesintotheair.Theprima‐ry noxious gases caused by biomass fuels arecarbon monoxide and dioxide, nitrogen oxide,sulfur dioxide, and hydrocarbons Lakshmi,Virdi,Thakur,etal, .Whilecarbonmonox‐ide can be directlymeasured as a gas, the ineparticles simultaneously produced by combus‐tion are measured as levels of particle pollu‐tion , or PM. Speci ically, inhalable particulatematter caused by ires are classi ied as PM . ,meaningtheyare . micrometersorlessindi‐ameter. These are the ones that contribute to

respiratory problems and other hazardoushealthissues seeFigure EPA, .

Figure3:PM2.5:Hazardousparticlepollution.(EPA,2015)

The United States Occupational Safety and(ealthAdministration OS(A ,theUnitedStatesEnvironmental Protection Agency EPA , andtheWorld(ealthOrganization W(O have setstandardsfor themostprominentparticlesandnoxiousgasesproducedthroughthecombustionofsolidbiomassfuels,buttheyassumeaneight‐hour workday. )n the typical poorly ventilatedkitchenenvironment foundwithinmanyvillagehomes, these gases accumulate, exposing theresidentsforamajorityoftheirtimeintheday.Thepolicy guidelines fail to account for the in‐consistencywithin a residential setting, includ‐ingdifferinglevelsofgasproductionthroughoutthe day, temperature, house settings, and thenumberofpeopleexposedatone time.Variousresearchershavetriedtoestablishanewsetof

“Cooking with wood

over open fires or in

simple stoves exposes

household members to

daily pollutant concen-

trations between those

of second-hand smoke

and active smoking.”

international guidelines that take into accountthedifferenceingasexposurelevelsinresiden‐tial settings compared to strictly industrial set‐tings Clark, ; Jetter, . (owever, thefactremainsthatthelevelsofnoxiousgasespro‐ducedinthehomesaredangerouslyhigh,withalargenumberoflastingadversehealtheffects.Proposed Alternatives: Successes & Failures )nearly ,inruralwestern)ndianvillages,alternative cook stoves ACS speci ically de‐signedwiththeaimtoreducenoxiousgasemis‐sionsweretestedinhomesandcomparedtotheemissions from a tested traditional clay stove.Thehouseholdairpollution (AP levelsofeachweremonitoredandcomparedtoeachotheraswell as to theW(Ostandards.The testedACSsshowed a reduction in noxious gas levels, butthetraditionalcookstovesproducedanaveragePM . measurementroughly ‐foldhigherthantheW(O health recommendation of ug/m Muralidharan,Sussan,Limaye,etal, .Theimportance of this case study is twofold. First,theelevatedlevelsofairpollutionreinforcetheneed for improvement of current cooking andheatingmethods.Second,itconveystheneedforabetterstandardofresidentialexposurelevels.)nthecaseofproposingalternativecookingandheatingmethodsorventilationsystemsolutions,a baseline measurement of CO and/or PM . isessential.Thesigni icanceof thevalue isnot inits precision compared to theworld standards,butinitsuseasacomparisonwhendeterminingthesuccessofanimprovementmethod.

)n ,GuntherBenschandJorgPeterspre‐sentedacasestudy inwhich theyrecorded theoverall response to the introduction of an im‐proved cook stove )CS in a controlled trial inSenegal, Africa. When observing the impact ofthe implemented)CS, theauthorsexaminedthepopularityof various typesof cookingmethodswith both the experimental treatment groupandthecontrolgroup seeTable .Table1:UsagePercentageofVariousCooking

Methods(Bensch&Peters,2012)

Unlikeother)CSs,BenschandPeters )CScon‐tinuedtousetraditionalbiomassfuel,butitwasmuchmoreef icient in its fuelconsumption.Bycontinuing the use of traditional fuel, Benschand Peterswere able to extend the technologytoamuchwiderbaseofrecipients. )naddition,the)CSconsumedlessbiomasspermealcooked,and thus resulted in shorter meal preparationtimes. Bensch and Peters )CS acted more as abridging technology , rather than a completeshift in the current culturally accepted cookingmethods Bensch & Peters, . This ap‐proachcanbeparalleledtothevillagesin(ima‐

chal Pradesh, )ndia, where this bridging tech‐nology maybemorewidelyaccepted.Meanwhile,arecentcasestudyinKwale,Ken‐yafocusedontheeffectivenessofdifferentven‐tilation strategies on the reduction of biomass‐related particle exposure in homes. Throughsome adjustments to a real‐life kitchen replica,fourscenariosweretested.Theresultspresent‐edthattheuseofanyventilationtypedecreasedthe concentration levels within the kitchens,with the chimneybeingmost effective. The ab‐senceofaventilationsystemdidnotshowsignsof lowered concentrationlevels.Thestudyindicatedthat simple ventilationsystems, especially chim‐neys, were an effectivemethod in mitigating thegas level exposure in in‐doorareas.Althoughamyriadof casestudieshavebeendone to improve traditional cooking methods,manymodelshaveonlyproposedmodernalter‐natives like liquid petroleum gas LPG stoves,solarcookers,rocketstoves,andsoforth.Whilethese are suitable devices, they have not beenwidely adopted. Some villages even have LPGstoves, butnevertheless relyprimarily on theirtraditional stove for cooking purposes. )n sum,our reviewof literature revealed somepositivecasestudyrecommendations,aswellasseveralmodern cooking advancements that have failedto take hold. With these precedents, our teamworkedto indabalancebetweencurrentcook‐ingpracticesandadvancedcookingtechnology.

Methodology: Fieldwork and Prototype Development The goal of our project was to manage thenoxious gases produced through traditionalcookingmethods. Figure ,below,summarizesourobjectives.3.1: Understand the risks and limitations with current cooking and ventilation prac-tices Our team identi ied participants from sur‐roundingcommunitiesthatwerewillingtopart‐ner with us so that we may understand localcooking and heating practices.We conducted abaseline assessmentof the village communitiesthrough interviews with these participants by(indi‐speaking teammates. Responses were

translated into English immediately followingtheinterview.Additionaldocumentationinclud‐edphotographingand ilmingthekitchensetupfor thephysicalspacesandequipmentused forcookingandheating.)naddition,wemadequali‐tativeobservationsofthekitchen,whichinclud‐ednotingiftherewasevidenceofasmokesmellandblackenedwalls. 3.2: Design and build improved cook stove and ventilation prototypes We designed a cook stove using traditionalmaterialsthatincludedasimpleventilationsys‐tem.Weconstructedan initialprototype insideanenclosedsimulatedkitchenstructureoncam‐pus. Local materials were used to build thechulha in the traditional manner, and this in‐cluded choppedpineneedles, bricks, soil, freshcow dung, iron rods, and a metal sheet. We

learnedthepropermixtureofthesematerialsaswellashowtouseitmosteffectivelyinbuildingby a campus worker familiar with the art ofbuilding traditional stoves. As per convention,thechulhaincludedthreeholesforcookingpotsand an open area in the front for feeding ire‐woodandcookingchapatis.Weaddedaventtoourprototype thatwouldnotbe found incom‐mon traditional cookstoves, for thepurposeofconnectingapipetoactasaventilationsystem.This irst prototype required several days fordrying.Meanwhile,wecreatedasecond,smaller‐scale prototypewith a slightly varied and im‐proveddesign.Whilestillmadeoutoftradition‐al conventionalmaterials, this prototype addedseveral innovations inorderto furthermitigatethe smoke production and increase stove ef i‐ciency:abrickbaseplate,anenclosedboxshape,one side intake vent pipe for air low, and onechimneypipetochannelsmokeoutofthehouse.3.3: Gather test data and feedback to devel-op recommendations for the communities Aftertestingourimprovedcampusprototypefor its ability to hold a ire andboilwater in awok, we invited several primary householdcookerstouseourprototype.Weaskedtheminsemi‐structured interviews to communicatefeedback regarding its usability and ef iciency.The ieldtestgeneratedresultsonboththefunc‐tionality of the designed prototype and partici‐pantinterest inusinganon‐traditionalmethod.Empiricaldataincludedfactorssuchas irewoodef iciency,smokecontainment,

Figure4:Objectivesfor ieldworkandprototypedevelopment

constructioncosts,anddesignlimitations.Userfeedbackwasessentialfordeterminingpercep‐tionofqualityandusability.Thesecriteriawereusedtore inethedesignandbuildrecommen‐dationsforourstakeholderpartners.Thead‐vantages,materials,visualconstructioninstruc‐tions,andmaintenanceoftheimprovedcookstovewithventilationwereincludedinthe inalrecommendationpamphlet.)twasprintedinboth(indiandEnglish.Results and Discussion Theresultsofourbaselineassessmentinter‐viewsand ieldworkcon irmedoursuspicionsabouttraditionalpracticesastheymaypromoteundueexposuretonoxiousgases.Thedataarepresentedherebyobjective.

Objective 1: Understand the risks and limi-tations with current cooking and ventilation practices.

Wevisitedsixvillagesandengagedwithato‐tal of twenty‐seven households. )n these inter‐views,wefoundthat %ofhouseholdshadei‐ther women or children cooking, and % ofhouseholdshadmencooking.Figure indicates the majority of respond‐ents answered no when asked to report ifthere were any health issues that they believe

were a direct result of long‐term smoke expo‐sure.(owever, %of respondents that statedno tothisquestionwentontodescribehealthissuestheyareexperiencinginaquestionaskingabout issues theyarehavingwith their currentcooking practice. )n an effort to better under‐stand these reported health issues, we beganfocusingonthecookingmethodsdirectly.When cooking, the most common fuelusediswoodwithallhouseholdsusingitas

theirprimaryfuelsourceduetoitsaccessibility.TheupkeepofthewoodstockwithinthehomeswasreportedtobeaprominentuseoftheirtimeseeFigure .Thereasonforthiswiderangeofdata was not explained. Due to the amount oftime these households spend collecting ire‐

wood, village residentshaveexpressed interestin a chulha that burns wood more ef iciently.Currently,mealsaretakinglongperiodsoftimeto preparedue to theinef icien‐cy of thestove seeFigure .Alongwiththe longhoursspentcooking,womenare

Figure5:FieldworkInterviews

Figure6:Responsesfromquestionaskingabouthealthissuesduetosmoke

Figure7:Reportedhoursspentgatheringirewoodperweek

Figure8:Totaltimespentcookingperday

beingpotentiallyexposedtothesenoxiousgasesfor additional hours as they are boiling water,heating their homes, and maintaining theircooking area. Most of their additional hoursspent in the kitchen are dedicated to mainte‐nanceastheexcessivesmokeproductioncausesblackeningtothecookingareaandutensils seeFigure .

Beyondtheactualuseofthecurrentstove,weassessedtheawarenesswithinthecommunitiesof the need for an )CS or ventilation system.Twenty‐six homes presented criticisms of theircurrentmethods.Manyresidentsnotedthattheproduction of smoke was at an elevated levelandsomestatedthat theiruseofcurrent tradi‐tional methods was causing health problems.Yet, the majority of the homes surveyed wereunawareofproperventilationtechniques.Thesehomes were using only small windows, whichwere blocked by various items and located far

from their stoves, open doors for air low, orsimply tiny cracks in their roof as their mainformofventilation.(oweverunawareofmeth‐ods to alleviate the issue, all homes conveyedwhat improvements theywantedmade to theircurrent cooking method, which included achulha that would produce less smoke whilecookingandconsumelesswood.Objective 2: Design and build improved cook stove and ventilation prototypes. Our team formulated our chulha design byadapting it to be more ef icient based on heattransfer theory. The irst prototype had threecooking chambers, one central elbowpipe, andan open front for irewood see Figure . )twasbuiltoverthecourseofsevenhours,includ‐ingthecollectionofmaterials.Thispro‐totype was createdinasimulatedroomwith no properwindows and onedoor. The secondprototype had onecooking chamber,onepipesituatedinthetopbackcornerand another on theside of the stove,and one closeableopen front forirewood. )t also took about seven hours tobuild, and around three hours were spent col‐lecting materials. This second prototype wasconstructedinashedwithametal‐ridgedroof.

Oursecondprototypeincludedseveralmodi‐ications from the traditional cook stove and afewimperativeadjustmentsfromthe irstproto‐type.Thetraditionalstovetophasanopenareafor irewoodaswellasanopenstovetop.Thereisnopipeorchimney,thusthesmokedisperseseverywhere and is not channeled in a certaindirection. Modi ications from the traditionalcookstoveincludeabox‐shapedcookstove,twopipes topandside ,abaseplate,aclosedstov‐etop,andacloseablefrontopening.Thefewad‐justmentsmadefromthe irstprototypearetheadditionofa secondpipeand theplacementofthetoppipe seeFigure .

Figure9:BlackenedCookingAreaandUten-silsinRunjhaVillage(Sharma,2016)

Figure10:InitialPrototype(Baker,2016)

Figure11.ComparisonoftraditionalstoveinNehriVillagetosecondproto-type.Arrowsnotethechangesmade,whichincludeabox-shapedstove,acloseablefrontopening,atopandsidepipe,aclosedstovetop,andabaseplate.

(Zhang,2016)

Objective 3: Gather test data and feedback to develop recommendations for the com-munities. During the irst prototype testing, thin steelsheets covered twoof the three chambers, andonechamberwascoveredwithasmallpot illedwithwater.Fire initiallycameoutof theelbowpipe,butafterafewminutes,smokebegan low‐ingoutinstead.Thewaterinthepottookabouttenminutestoboil.Thesecondprototypewastestedtwicewithawok illed with water. The lip of the cookingchamber immediately blackened once smokestartedproducing.Smoketraveledoutofthetopbackpipeaswellasthefrontopening.Nosmoketravelled out of the side pipe. The side pipestayedatnormaltemperature.Oncethe irehadgoneout,smokedissipatedoutofallopenareas.During the second round of testing, our teamblockedair lowto thesidepipe.When thesidepipewascovered,weobservedthatmoresmokecameoutofthefrontopeningthanwhenitwasleftopen seeFigure . Wetestedclosingall

openingsexceptforthetopbackpipewhentheirehadgoneout.Asaresult,weobservedthicksmoke quickly escaping from the top pipe seeFigure .Followingour initial testing,weworkedwith atotalofeightlocalvillagewomenwhotestedourprototypeandprovidedobservationalfeedback.Their initial thoughtswere focusedontheirex‐citementofthetraditionalconstructionmethod.They felt the heat ef iciency was better thantheir traditional stove as additional irewoodwasnotneeded.Theycommentedonallthenewstructuralchangesasbeingaddedbene‐its for them. While there were manynew aspects these women liked, theywerecriticaloftheaestheticsofthestovewith emphasis on the front openingneedingtobewider. With less wood being consumed andsmokebeingdirectedup seeFigure ,

thewomenexpressedtheywouldusethisstoveovertheircurrentcookstove.)nparticular,theystated that thepipeswerethekeymodi icationthey wanted. Less smoke would create lessblackeningof thewalls. Final remarks includedadviceontraditionalconstruction.Alongwithqualitativefeedback,werecordedgas level readings for our prototype and com‐pared them against readings taken in a villagehomelocatedinNehriVillage seeTable .

Figure12.Smokeleavingfromfrontopeningduringtesting;sidepipecovered.

(Zhang,2016)

Figure13.Smokeescapingfromtopbackpipeduringtesting(Zhang,2016)

Figure14:Smokeleavingtoppipe(Zhang,2016)

Table2:ComparativeGasLevelReadings

Gas level readings taken inNehriwere dif i‐cultassmokequicklyscatteredassoonasitwasproduced.Womenareexposedtoaconstantav‐erageof ppmforthedurationofcookingaswellasthecleanupprocesswhenusingatradi‐tionalstove.(owever,womentestingourproto‐typewereexposedtoanaverageof ppmdur‐ingthecookingandcleaningprocess.Littletonosmokewas channeled out of the side pipe andfront opening during cooking see Figure .

Thereadingstakenfromtheabovebackpipearenot a factor in this average comparison as thesmoke would travel directly out of the housethroughtheroof. Discussion Thedata raised interestingpoints about thepath forward, aswell as some questions aboutappropriatetechnologydesignandengineering.)ndian villagewomen in the (imachal Pradeshregion are reluctant to change their traditional

cookingandheatingpractices.Regardlessofallthe new modern advancements being intro‐duced, thesewomen have still stuckwith theirtraditional methods for decades. )t begs thequestion, why would another new )CS designmotivate them to switch out their traditionalstove?)twas important tobeginourprojectbyun‐derstanding our stakeholders perspective ontraditionalmethods. Fromour indings,we seetwo key topics emerge that village women arepassionate about and will, thus, determine thefeasibility of our design being adopted withintheirhomes: fuel sourceand stove con‐struction.Wood is their primary source of fuelasitiseasilyaccessibleandavailabletothematnocost.Anyothertypeoffuel isexpensiveandwould require travelling long distances to ob‐tain.Furthermore,traditionalstoveconstructionisasacredpracticethatthesewomenhavestucktoforgenerationsandhaveexpressedtheirun‐willingness to give up. To be compatible withtheirexpectations,wecreatedan)CSdesignthatwouldcontinuethosetwopractices.Wesimulta‐neouslymade several structural changes to in‐crease ef iciency and reduce smoke productionduringcooking.Changeisincremental,andsoitis important to recognize the hesitancy thesewomen have when new )CS designs are pro‐posed. Our team has found an appreciation fortheavailabilityanduseoflocalmaterialsaswellas staying cost sensitive. While the stove is anew design, it is still identi iable as a chulha .Based on our testing feedback, the women en‐joyed the continual use of traditionalmud and

dung,andonlyhadcriticismswithsmallcosmet‐icaspects.Although traditional practices can continuebeing respected, the most important questionmustbeanswered tocompletelydetermine thesuccessofour)CSbeing implemented:whatin‐centivedothesewomenhavetoadoptour)CS?Thisprojectwasgroundedonthenotionthataredesignedcookstoveisnecessaryforwomen shealth.Whilethescienceintheliteraturereviewsupportsthis,ourstakeholdershavenot identi‐ieditasacriticalissue.Our indingsaroundre‐ported health effects were underreported andvague. Speci ically, therewas a low percentageof households that expressed having health is‐suesrelatedtolong‐termexposure.(owever,inanother question focused on problems withtheir current cooking practice,many of the re‐sponses indicated their top issue was health‐related.Basedonthis,webelievewemayhaveeither encountered an issue with the languagebarrier or our participants did not recognizecertain symptoms as actual health issues. Ourteam has only collected self‐reported medicaldata,andthus,answerstothisquestionmaynotbeaccurate.These results raise thequestionofwhetherornot an improvedhealthbene it canbeseenasanincentivetothem.(owever,itap‐pearsfromthelackofreactiontopromptsabouthealth that this isnota goodenough reason tochangetheircurrentcookingmethod.Moving forward to ind a key incentive, wecompared toxic gas level readings between thetraditionalstoveandour)CS.Theresultsshowasigni icantchangewithabouta %difference

Figure15.StoveduringCooking(Zhang,2016)

fromthetraditionalstovereadings.Thoughthegas level exposure has decreased substantially,this data has no bearing on local adoption.Wepredictthiskindofawarenesswilldevelopmoregraduallyovertimeasinterestinglyenough,weinterviewedadoctorduringourbaselineassess‐mentwhoexpressed concernsabout theharm‐ful health effects associated with long‐termsmoke exposure. (e built a rudimentary chim‐ney to try to alleviate this issue, and some ofthese chimneys have been implemented inhomesaroundthearea.Although his word‐of‐mouth approach tospread awareness about the harmful effects iscommendable,itmaytakeyearsforthesewom‐en to actually value this information. For now,the two incentives that seem to resonate withthewomenarebetterfuelef iciencyandalesseramount of smoke produced during cooking.Womenwerepersistentwiththeirrequestforacook stove that could burn less irewood andproduce less smoke. The results from our )CSshowthepotentialtomeetthesetwoattributes.Ouroverall ieldtestresultswereoverwhelm‐ing positive. All of the women who tested ourprototype shared their enthusiasm to use our)CSandevenvoicedtheywouldbewillingtopayfor this )CS to be implemented in their homes.Theywereextremelyimpressedwithourdesignas itwasable to incorporateasolution to theirtwotopissueswhilestillmaintainingtraditionalfunctionandform.

Project Outcomes Prototype Recommendations Due to time restraints,we recommend test‐ingourprototypeinavillagehomeforaperiodof several weeks. This will provide a proof ofconcept prototype that will gauge if it can beadoptedovertime.Theprototypewouldneedtobebuilttoexactlocalspeci icationswithachim‐ney ittedtotheroof.Other recommendations include adding aneighth‐portion of cement to the cow dung anddirt mixture to prevent cracks from formingduring the drying period. Cement will also re‐duce the maintenance frequency as it will notcrackordegradeasquicklyasthedirtandcowdungmixturewill.Furthermore,werecommendaddingadampertothesidepipetomoreeasilyopenandclosethesidepipewhenneeded.Theside pipe must remain horizontal without abendoran L shapeinordertoproperly func‐tion as a chimney damper. A bend would dis‐tract the pulling of air in and thus damage thebackpipe sperformance.When constructing the chimney, we recom‐mend using a lat metal sheet as themeans ofattachmenttotheroof.)nthecaseofthetypicalhousehold slate roo ing, one slatewouldbe re‐placedwiththismetalsheet.Tosecurethepipe,a hole should be cut in the sheet that is to theexactdimensionsof thepipe. )t is important torun the pipe through the hole and weld it inplace so that it its tightly in the metal sheet.Drill holes through the pipe above the metalsheettoallowforsmoketoescapeandcoverthetopofthepipebyweldinganadditionalpieceof

metal sheet to it andaddingametal cap seeFigure . This top cover prevents rain fromentering the chimney and protects the stovefromweather.Thepipeshouldbeinstalledinanarea that is away from lammable items as thechimneybecomeextremelyhotduringcooking.When cooking, our teamsuggests opening the sidepipe to promote air low inand thus reduce theamount of smoke leavingfrom the front opening.Af‐tercooking,werecommendclosing the front openingwith a mud‐coated thinsteelsheetandcoveringthesidepipe.Bydoingthis,thesmoke will be directed upthrough the top pipe andoutofthehouse.Our design calls foryearly maintenance in or‐der to prevent potential house ires. The chim‐neypipeshouldberemovedfromboththesideand back top once a year. )t is recommendedthat both pipes be properly swept out with asteelbrushtoclearoutanybuilt‐upsoot.After,the pipes can be put back into the stove struc‐tureandmudcanbereapplied.

Figure16.:Chimney“Cap”(Codding,2016)

Construction Pamphlet )norderforfutureresidentsoftheMandire‐gion to be able to build their own cook stovewith the design of our )CS prototype, we havecreated an instructional pamphlet. This pam‐phletcontainsalistofthenecessarymaterials, step‐by‐stepinstructionswithamplevisualaids,maintenance information, and a gas exposurehealthfact.Thepamphlet,whichcanbefoundinthe Supplementary Materials on the WP) )QPsite, was written in both an English and (indiversion.Conclusion Ultimately, while our indings and recom‐mendations appear to take a step back fromnewly proposed cook stove innovations, welearned that modern stove advancements willnot be adoptedwithout incremental steps thatcan bridge the two extremes. Thus, our teamstressestheimportanceofcontinuingtradition‐alconstructionmethodsandfueluseforour)CSdesign.)ncorporatingthesetwokeyaspectsintofuture )CSdesigns is signi icant for the gradualprogression of improving traditional cookingpractices. These themeswere the primary pas‐sions of the village residents, as found by ourinitial interviews, and remained as two of themostpraised aspectsof our )CSprototypedur‐ing stakeholder testing.While the goals of this)CSistoreducesmokeproductionandincreaseheat ef iciency for the immediate bene its oflessmaintenance,fuel,andcooktimes,thesearein actuality the perfectways to decrease expo‐sure to theproduced toxicgases,and therefore

improveoverallhealthoftheexposedfamiliesinthe(imachalPradeshregion.Acknowledgements Our teamwould like to thank the followingindividuals for theirsigni icantcontributionstotheproject: Dr.)ngridShockeyfortheuseofherperson‐alwokintestingourprototype Dr.RajeshGhosh for his engineering exper‐tiseindevelopingourprototypedesign Dr. StephenMcCauley, Dr. Rik Rani Koner,andDr.RamnaThakur, for theircontinuousguidanceandsupportfortheproject Bhagchand ))TStaff forhistutorialintradi‐tionalconstructionmaterialsandmethods Pawan&Family for their interestandhelp‐fulnessinourbaselineassessments ))T‐Mandi Female Security Guards for theirtimetotestandgivevaluablefeedback ))T‐Mandi Mechanical Department for con‐tinuouslypreparingourmaterialsasneeded

Thefullreportandsupplementalmaterialsforthisproject(rawdata,relevantcasestudies,theinstructionpamphlet,andadditionalresources)canbefoundusingkeywordsfromourprojecttitleathttp://www.wpi.edu/E-project-db/E-project-search/searchandfurtherinformationcanbefoundattheIIT’sISTPpage:http://www.iitmandi.ac.in/istp/projects.html

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