E-Letter responses to:

reports: Robert Bailis, Majid Ezzati, and Daniel M. Kammen Mortality and Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Biomass and Petroleum Energy Futures in Africa Science 2005; 308: 98-103 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Charcoal is used AND made by people

Baptiste Hautdidier, Denis Gautier and Laurent Gazull   (20 October 2005)

Charcoal is used AND made by people 20 October 2005
Baptiste Hautdidier, PhD candidate in Environmental Science CIRAD, Denis Gautier and Laurent Gazull Respond to this E-Letter: Re: Charcoal is used AND made by people	By offering new perspectives from public health and global warming studies, Bailis, Ezzati, and Kammen help bring back to the forefront the dilemmas of charcoal use. Their main argument is that despite potentially negative impacts from greenhouse gases (GHG) and ecological points of view, a large shift to charcoal for household energy in Africa should be backed because it would facilitate a decrease of users’ exposure to toxic smoke and thus of associated respiratory diseases. As such, we find their pledge for a technical support of this transition very convincing. However, one should note that not only users of charcoal are subject to respiratory diseases but producers too: in Brazil, where 350,000 charcoal workers are registered, a recent cross-sectional study (1) has shown that sampled individuals had received a systemic exposure to genotoxic compounds. In Mali, where there are likely to be more than 100, 000 regular workers, charcoal is made in earthen kilns that are tended by an operator during most of the combustion. This process typically implies a dangerous work with a shovel over the hot and crumbling kiln, amidst smoke enriched with unburnt carbon. The authors acknowledge that charcoal is not a panacea, but its processing and use can be bettered and thus become an attractive investment in GHG mitigation activities. Given the current appeal of charcoal in urban sub-Saharan Africa, this tactical stance is understandable but is similar to that of carmakers striving to design hybrid engines, only to implement them on two-ton SUVs. We think it is possible for African users to keep relying on wood and improve the balance between GHG, ecological, and public health perspectives, by using more low-cost chimneys and smoke-hoods, a partial solution already advocated by some (2). References 1. M. Kato et al., Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention 23 (June, 2004). 2. H. Warwick, A. Doig, Smoke – the Killer in the Kitchen. Indoor Air Pollution in Developing Countries (ITDG Publishing, London, 2004).