Household smoke monitoring
Practical Action
Group discussions can help people to develop ideas publicly – though care should be taken to
ensure that those with the quieter voices also have a chance to express themselves. If the
entrepreneur is available to attend some of the group sessions, he/she will be left in no doubt if
there are problems that need to be addressed. Otherwise the comments should be fed back from
the meetings.
Data analysis
With all this data, statistical analysis is key to examining the findings and reporting them
accurately. Practical Action uses a statistical package (SPSS) to look at:
Baseline data on levels of pollution: respirable PM; CO-room; CO-woman
Factors which affect concentration of pollutants - weather; number of meals; time spent;
size of room; fuel; type of stove etc.
Time / activity studies which show how long the woman is close to the fire
Further studies looking at the impact of household interventions on health and well-
being, savings and income generation, time and environment.
Reference and further reading
Smoke, Health and Household Energy Volume 1: Participatory Methods for Design,
Installation, Monitoring and Assessment of Smoke Alleviation Technologies [Liz Bates, ed]
Practical Action 2005
WHO, 2007 Randomized controlled trial in Guatemala.
UCB, UCB Particle Monitor, 2006
Kirk Smith home page
WHO, 2007 Evaluating household energy and health interventions: a catalogue of methods.
World Health Organization. Geneva, WHO, in press.
Smoke – The Killer in The Kitchen: Indoor Air Pollution in Developing Countries, by Hugh
Warwick and Alison Doig, Practical Action Publishing, 2004
Monitoring tools & questionnaires
Practical Action
Kirk Smith Group
CEIDH
Useful websites
HEDON
The HEDON Household Energy Network is an informal forum dedicated to improving social,
economic, and environmental conditions in the South, through promotion of local, national,
regional and international initiatives in the household energy sector. It has recently launched a
Clean Air Special Interest Group (CleanAirSIG)
PCIA
The Partnership for Clean Indoor Air was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg in September 2002. The mission of the partnership is to improve
health, livelihood and quality of life by reducing exposure to air pollution, primarily among women
and children, from household energy use.
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