Why do we cook with toxic gas emitting firewood when clean LPG gas is available?
Posted on October 11th, 2011
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Dr Hector PereraƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ London
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ When we cook by firewood, we always get smoke; we cannot get smokeless flame with firewood unlike in gas cooking. Black smoke is due to incomplete combustion of organic matter such as, wood or even coal. In a typical firewood kitchen inSri Lanka, itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s not uncommon to have a kerosene lamp as well that always gives a stream of soot or carbon black, may be with some fumes of kerosene as well. If the firewood fails to light up, a quick dash of kerosene from the lamp is a solution but itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s quite dangerous because the whole thing might catch fire. How often this small lamp spills near the stove and catches fire?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A few similar incidents happened inEnglandwhen people throw BBQ lighting sprit into the fire but our servants inSri Lankawere experts in doing these acts.
Burning fire wood fire is a type of chemical reaction, in which wood combines with oxygen, so that if it is burning well, the only products will be carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O) and a small amount of ash, which cannot burn any further. Carbon dioxide is a gas and the water appears as steam.
Suffering and cocktail of gases
In a kitchen they burn so many kinds of firewood, such as coconut leaves, husks, shells, cinnamon, cashew, rubber or any kind of dry wood and we burn or chemically we call, oxidised. Sometimes biomass fuels or fossil fuels, the main by-products are the same, heat, smoke, carbon dioxide and monoxide. When food is cooked inside the homes with firewood, dung, coal or with other solid fuels, it creates high level of indoor air pollution. Say for example a mixture of different firewood such as rubber, cashew or coconut leaves and shells are burned in cooking rice, curries and frying dry fish in open fires; it gives a cocktail of nasty smelling gases including smoke. They say, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-No smoke without fireƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ but it smokes before it catches fire then, fire and smoke come out. If it didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t catch fire, some people use some kerosene from the kerosene lamp or blow several times into the fire. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Just imagine the heat on the face, eyes and the hair. How would these kitchen servants stop inhaling these gases, while trying to light fire because they are so near the stove? Sometimes they cough several times continuously, tears and nose drooling, sneeze then need to blow out the wet and blocked nose several times to unblock the nose while sweating. I know it because I also have cooked in open fires to see the actual situation? I must say, itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s not a pleasant experience. You smell like a smoked mackerel, haddock or bacon or dry fish or ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-JardiƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ when sweat mixed with, dust and ash on hair, face and on clothes, black soot on hands and on clothes, looks like wearing a mask, too much to describe. I am wondering how some of these people undergo this suffering every single day, many hours in the open fire kitchens? It is still happening inSri Lanka because of the energy poverty.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
Rich and wealthy
These so called wood burning stoves in the sitting room are now limited to rich and wealthy class inEnglandbut to my surprise itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s a way of life to some poor people inSri Lanka. Of course they are not trying getting comfort by warmth but to cook breakfast first then keep going to cook meals for the rest of the day to a whole family. Yes the wood burning stoves may keep you warm and cosy in the shivering cold winter, but they may also be hazardous to your health, especially if you have certain health conditions.
All these toxic gases are absolutely unhealthy. It can lead to a number of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases such as angina; it is the name given to symptoms (usually chest pain or chest discomfort) produced when the heart muscle is in a state ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ischemiaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ – that is, when the heart muscle is not getting enough blood flow. Angina is most commonly produced by blockages in the coronary artery. Then emphysema caused by damaged lung air sacks or alveoli and asthma. The point I am trying to say is these are happening due to pollutant toxic gases emitted by burning firewood.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Some advantages of using LPG
If the people could economically afford to use LPG then most of the problems arising due to use of firewood can be dealt. The long term health condition is most important and the authorities must take this into serious consideration. I am not asking them to cut the gas prices or give them for free but must educate them how to get the maximum benefits of PLG by various means. Definitely if LPG gas is available at an affordable price then itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s a good start then educate them how to use gas efficiently, show the benefits of using of LPG and the dangers of using firewood for daily cooking.
There are plenty of benefits by using LPG gas, improves the long term health, able to cut down the time waiting in the kitchen in making meals. When cooked by firewood, they have to wash away the pots and pans blackened with carbon deposits and getting carbon depositing under their nails and deep ridges and cuts in the palms. In Western world, the ladies spend a fortune to keep the nails tidy up while these energy poverty people get dirty hands. ItƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s shocking to realise some people take hours to prepare a meal in these firewood kitchens. I am able to show how to prepare a family meal in about 45 minutes, why not put me into test? No wonder these takeaway people are laughing all the way to the bank after doing good business.
There are other benefits of LPG, cutting down the time spent in collecting firewood, have healthy life style to women and children, additional time availability to do some other work such as gardening or do some income generating work.
Even last week, Daily News reported that the government is supplying electricity to most parts ofSri Lankathen they can also use electric cookers in addition to LPG cookers. I am sure solar powered cookers are not too far away. Whatever the source of energy is used for cooking, the people must be educated how to get the best use of the source of energy, otherwise they waste money, energy and pollute the atmosphere carelessly. One thing, if you didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t cook correctly, you could be smelling like a mobile kitchen.
Energy saving demonstration
Thanks to ITN management, I have demonstrated several times in ITN, TV inSri Lankahow to save about 60% of gas that is wasted in cooking. In another ITN programme called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-WenesaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ as well, my energy saving cooking demonstration was shown. I talked about the technique, advantages and much more in two long live interviews, one in Sinhalese then in English, no complains received.
One London correspondent, a leading journalist, Dr Tilak Fernando has written a long supporting article about my energy saving technique and published in Daily News. Even Sunday Lankadeepa kindly published about my work. I have written a number articles about energy saving cooking, suggestions to teach some basic cooking to some school children to cut down obesity, dangers of cooking by firewood and many more. They have been published with the courtesy of www.lankaweb.comƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
Now the sustainable energy authority shows some interests in my energy saving scientific cooking. My aim is help the general public, save gas because gas means money, burning gas carelessly means burning money. InEnglandgas prices have gone up by 18% since August 2011.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ If the present school children are gradually educated in learning basic cooking, I am sure when they have to cook, they would use gas wisely.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is worthwhile for different Energy Authorities to inquire properly into my energy saving scientific cooking technique than taking my word. As usual, I still keep my challenge open for the scientists or environmentalist to come forward and see if they are able to verify this method. I hope they would give recognition to my method, if I failed to prove my method, does not save energy then I would pay Rs500,000. Please note my aim is to help the people save gas and save the environment as well. I hope someone would take this into their consideration, email perera6@hotmail.co.uk.
October 11th, 2011 at 11:07 pm
The solution for a country like Sri Lanka (and the greenest solution) would be to use briquettes instead of firewood. Briquettes can be made out of biowaste material like rice husks and charcoal with minimal capital investment. Therefore it is highly sustainable.
By using LPG we do nothing but loose foreign exchange and contribute to global warming.
October 12th, 2011 at 12:35 am
Well, we can still have a firewood stove without the smoke attacking the pot. As you are writing from London, have a look at the old houses in the interior of England or go see some village houses in the Continental Europe. In the winter, everyone has to close all windows and doors, so smoke would kill the inhabitants, but they know ho wto use firewood since centuries. Why not research and tell our people how to, instead of asking them to use LPG gas.
In our Lankan kitchens LPG gas could be dangerous too. Its a question of how to burn the firewood, or LPG gas and get rid of the smoke, and of course a problem of ventilation.
Even, if we use any kind of fire source, our Lankan kitchen don’t have the ventilation to take away the smoke, even in the so-called condominium flats.
October 12th, 2011 at 4:07 am
I look forward to read Dr Hector Perera’s articles with interest, and sometimes with amusement. He has pearls of wisdom often put across in a somewhat disjointed way, and always rounding off the articles with his declaration of an idea or invention to overcome the problems that he discusses. May I humbly ask this wise doctor to release his secret agenda to the public, say on this forum, so that we all can benefit from them if they have any merit.
Now about the poor old wood fires for cooking, I too know very well about them as I was brought up in a house hold that had them in the kitchen. In fact we were extra careful entering the kitchen in the mornings before going to school, in case our snow white shirts got smeared with black soot from the walls, the “duma” or the occasionally falling soot sodden old cobwebs. Well, that was the way it was, and thankfully more and more villagers now have either the kerosene stove or the LPG, for better or cleaner cooking.
I am sure that everyone who uses wood fires would love cleaner cooking, if the equipment and LPG could be supplied at a sustainable cheaper price than the firewood, or garden and domestic trash that they burn. It is the unaffordability of cleaner cooking and the ready availability of local wood and trash, which drives villagers to use their traditional methods.
Having lived in villages, I do not quite agree about the toxic gases and CO2 etc ruining our environment in Sri Lankan villages, as a result of woodfire cooking. It is more likely the local polythene factories that have arisen in the neighbourhood and the indiscriminate disposal of silly silly bags that pollute our villages. Then, what are we going to do with all this wood and garden refuse that would otherwise accumulate in our gardens. Don’t they rot away naturally and emit gases?
The toxic and pollution argument has to be substantiated with numbers; otherwise it has no merit. For example, do you know that a Jumbo Jet burns about 200 tons of kerosine in a long trip, and all that fuel is returned to the atmosphere as CO2, water vapour and toxic nitrous gases. How many Jumbo jets and other air planes are in the sky around the world at any time? You can guess. The poor old wood fire pales into insignificance in front of a jumbo jet, yet the western countries and likes of SHELL company or BP keep pointing their commercially stained fingers at 3rd world householders’ wood fires.
I see this toxicity argument as a ploy by LPG companies to get their tentacles round poor peoples throats. Once they switch to LPG etc, even at promotion rate prices, the energy cost will be hiked up. The poor will suffer. At least now, they can have a hot meal, in their own way, for the price of a few cents.
October 12th, 2011 at 7:30 am
I have seen a nice and simple gadget that dramtically cuts down smoke of typical stoves that are being used in Sri Lanka. It is essentially a metal pipe that inserts closer to the wood. At the other end, there is a small Cooler Fans you see in computers. It runs on a 12v power supply and plugs into a wall outlet.
It is the automation of old “Dum Bataya”. It works superbly well, when pointed to the middle of the wood pile, and gives a very bright burning with dramatically (perhaps by 80%) of cut -down smoke.
I saw another similar concept in a stove that is being sold in the Nugegoda Super Market (ground floor – a shop near the West Side Staircase). It uses two similar fans connected to more covered version of a Clay Stove. They sell bags of Coconut Shell Charcoal, and said that the stove produces more heat than a LPG burner, produces no smoke at all, and costs less to operate than an LPG burner. The burner cost about US$35.00. Could not remember the prices of a bag of Charcoal. They claimed that you can fill it with rice husks or wood pellets, but said that it won’t produce the same results as the coconut charcoal (still said to be better than a typical open wood stove).