Burning for Sustainability: Biomass Energy, International Migration, and the Move to Cleaner Fuels and Cookstoves in Guatemala

Taylor, Matthew J.; Moran-Taylor, Michelle J.; Castellanos, Edwin J.; Elías, Silvel

doi:10.1080/00045608.2011.568881

Cited by 36 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…These high risk energy sources are important to daily living in LMICs, and therefore the need to develop engineering and behavioral interventions that promote safe use of fuel wood for cooking, heating, and light sources or that identify alternative energy sources are critical. In averting cooking-related burns for instance, interventions to develop and promote safe low technology equipment as substitutes for open flames or wood cookstoves that reduce potential child contact to hot objects or limit access to the cooking area could reduce burn incidence and avert burn-related deformities and disabilities [ 21 , 22 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Supervision and Burn Outcome among Admitted Patients at Major Trauma Hospitals in the Gambia

Sanyang

Peek‐Asa

Young

et al. 2017

IJERPH

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Burn-related injuries are a significant burden in children, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where more than 90% of burn-related pediatric deaths occur. Lack of adult supervision of children is a major risk for pediatric burn injuries. The goal of this paper was to examine the general characteristics of burns and identify burn injury outcomes among adult-supervised children compared to those who were not supervised. The study examined burn injury and clinical characteristics among all burn patients admitted to two trauma hospitals in The Gambia, West Africa. At intake in the emergency room, the treating physician or nurse determined the need for admission based on body surface area burned (BSAB), depth of burn, and other clinical considerations such as co-occurring injuries and co-morbidities. During the study period of 1 April 2014 through 31 October 2016, 105 burn patients were admitted and data were collected by the treating physician for all of them. Information about supervision was only asked for children aged five years or less. More than half (51%) of the burn patients were children under 18 years, and 22% were under 5 years. Among children under five, most (86.4%) were supervised by an adult at the time of burn event. Of the 19 supervised children, 16 (84.2%) had body area surface burned (BSAB) of less than 20%. Two of the three children without adult supervision at the time of burn event had BSAB ≥ 20%. Overall, 59% of the patients had 20% + BSAB. Females (aOR = 1.25; 95% CI = 0.43–3.62), those burned in rural towns and villages (aOR = 2.29; 95% CI = 0.69–7.57), or burned by fire or flames (aOR = 1.47; 95% CI = 0.51–4.23) had increased odds of having a BSAB ≥ 20%, although these differences were not statistically significant. Children 0–5 years or 5–18 years (aOR = 0.04, 95% CI = 0.01–0.17; aOR = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.02–0.23, respectively) were less likely to have BSAB ≥ 20% than adults. Those burned in a rural location (aOR = 9.23, 95% CI = 2.30–37.12) or by fire or flames (aOR = 6.09, 95% CI = 1.55–23.97) were more likely to die. Children 0–5 years or 5–18 years (aOR = 0.2, 95% CI = 0.03–1.18; aOR = 0.38; 95% CI = 0.11–1.570, respectively) were less likely to die. Children constitute a significant proportion of admitted burn patients, and most of them were supervised at the time of the burn event. Supervised children (compared to unsupervised children) had less severe burns. Programs that focus on burn prevention at all levels including child supervision could increase awareness and reduce burns or their severity. Programs need to be designed and evaluated with focus on the child development stage and the leading causes of burns by age group.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Supervision and Burn Outcome among Admitted Patients at Major Trauma Hospitals in the Gambia

Sanyang

Peek‐Asa

Young

et al. 2017

IJERPH

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“…In light of this view of how energy transitions occur, it is perhaps not surprising that many stove intervention studies have observed that households continue to use their traditional stoves alongside improved stoves [ 14 , 17 , 18 , 22 , 24 ]. Furthermore, the extent to which new stoves are folded into the technology stack and can ultimately displace traditional cooking methods (leading to cleaner kitchens overall) depends heavily on how well suited these new technologies are to local culture and cooking practices [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the extent to which new stoves are folded into the technology stack and can ultimately displace traditional cooking methods (leading to cleaner kitchens overall) depends heavily on how well suited these new technologies are to local culture and cooking practices [ 15 ]. For example, a study of cooking practices in Guatemala showed that more affluent households (receiving remittances from migrant family members) had liquid petroleum gas (LPG) stoves but continued to rely on wood-burning stoves for most of their cooking needs because these stoves were better suited to the preparation of staple food items (beans, corn, and tortillas) [ 17 ]. Ultimately, without incorporating traditional cooking practices into the design process, even low-cost stoves are unlikely to be used [ 25 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on Emissions, Air quality, Climate, and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana (REACCTING): study rationale and protocol

et al. 2015

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BackgroundCooking over open fires using solid fuels is both common practice throughout much of the world and widely recognized to contribute to human health, environmental, and social problems. The public health burden of household air pollution includes an estimated four million premature deaths each year. To be effective and generate useful insight into potential solutions, cookstove intervention studies must select cooking technologies that are appropriate for local socioeconomic conditions and cooking culture, and include interdisciplinary measurement strategies along a continuum of outcomes.Methods/DesignREACCTING (Research on Emissions, Air quality, Climate, and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana) is an ongoing interdisciplinary randomized cookstove intervention study in the Kassena-Nankana District of Northern Ghana. The study tests two types of biomass burning stoves that have the potential to meet local cooking needs and represent different “rungs” in the cookstove technology ladder: a locally-made low-tech rocket stove and the imported, highly efficient Philips gasifier stove. Intervention households were randomized into four different groups, three of which received different combinations of two improved stoves, while the fourth group serves as a control for the duration of the study. Diverse measurements assess different points along the causal chain linking the intervention to final outcomes of interest. We assess stove use and cooking behavior, cooking emissions, household air pollution and personal exposure, health burden, and local to regional air quality. Integrated analysis and modeling will tackle a range of interdisciplinary science questions, including examining ambient exposures among the regional population, assessing how those exposures might change with different technologies and behaviors, and estimating the comparative impact of local behavior and technological changes versus regional climate variability and change on local air quality and health outcomes.DiscussionREACCTING is well-poised to generate useful data on the impact of a cookstove intervention on a wide range of outcomes. By comparing different technologies side by side and employing an interdisciplinary approach to study this issue from multiple perspectives, this study may help to inform future efforts to improve health and quality of life for populations currently relying on open fires for their cooking needs.

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“…In the domain of energy politics, the succession of biofuel ‘generations’ illustrates how the promise of new energy products may ultimately be undesirable when social, ethical or environmental factors are taken into account. For a case study which explores these complex factors in relation to the original biofuel, wood, see Taylor et al [20] on the politics of conservation, migration and wood-burning in Guatemala.…”

Section: Conceptual and Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working with bacteria and putting bacteria to work: The biopolitics of synthetic biology for energy in the United Kingdom

McLeod

Nerlich

Mohr

2017

Energy Research & Social Science

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The UK government has made significant investment into so called ‘fourth-generation’ biofuel technologies. These biofuels are based on engineering the metabolic pathways of bacteria in order to create products compatible with existing infrastructure. Bacteria play an important role in what is promoted as a potentially new biological industrial revolution, which could address some of the negative environmental legacies of the last. This article presents results from ethnographic research with synthetic biologists who are challenged with balancing the curiosity-driven and intrinsically fulfilling scientific task of working with bacteria, alongside the policy-driven task of putting bacteria to work for extrinsic economic gains. In addition, the scientists also have to balance these demands with a new research governance framework, Responsible Research and Innovation, which envisions technoscientific innovation will be responsive to societal concerns and work in collaboration with stakeholders and members of the public. Major themes emerging from the ethnographic research revolve around stewardship, care, responsibility and agency. An overall conflict surfaces between individual agents assuming responsibility for ‘stewarding’ bacteria, against funding systems and structures imposing responsibility for economic growth. We discuss these findings against the theoretical backdrop of a new concept of ‘energopolitics’ and an anthropology of ethics and responsibility.

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Burning for Sustainability: Biomass Energy, International Migration, and the Move to Cleaner Fuels and Cookstoves in Guatemala

Cited by 36 publications

References 41 publications

Child Supervision and Burn Outcome among Admitted Patients at Major Trauma Hospitals in the Gambia

Child Supervision and Burn Outcome among Admitted Patients at Major Trauma Hospitals in the Gambia

Research on Emissions, Air quality, Climate, and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana (REACCTING): study rationale and protocol

Working with bacteria and putting bacteria to work: The biopolitics of synthetic biology for energy in the United Kingdom

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