ANALYSIS OF BLACK CARBON IN TWO COOKSTOVE STUDIES IN RURAL AND URBAN PERU

Cookstoves emit harmful household air pollution (HAP), such as particulate matter (PM) and black carbon (BC). Interventions to decrease HAP in developing nations have ranges of effectiveness in reducing kitchen and personal exposure to HAP. Archived filters from two cookstove studies in Peru were analyzed for black carbon, where PM2.5 was significantly lower for intervention stoves or gas use. In rural Santiago de Chuco, traditional stoves had kitchen BC concentrations of 7.9 μg/m3 (N = 45, SE 1.37) while intervention brick stoves with chimneys had 5.1 μg/m3 (N = 45, SE 1.10). The observational study in urban Trujillo had kitchen non-gas BC concentrations of 4.0 μg/m3 (N = 63, SE 0.37), and gas stoves had 2.4 μg/m3 (N = 31, SE 0.24). Clean stoves lower kitchen and personal PM2.5 and BC concentrations, but the effect is greater for PM2.5. These findings have implications for HAP-related health and climate research.