Broadly, we focus on the impacts of energy use - typically at the household level -- on air pollution, climate, and health. While progress on providing clean household energy arguably follows development trajectories, there is need to accelerate the transition to clean cooking through innovative policy and dissemination approaches. Our research group builds the evidence base for these transitions -- based on health, environmental, and economic benefits -- using the multidisciplinary field of Environmental Health Sciences, which sits at the interface of laboratory science, aerosol chemistry, environmental engineering, and implementation science, as the foundation of our work. Our work falls into some broad thematic areas, discussed below.
We engage in policy-oriented experiments to help justify continued investment in clean household energy. These range from cost-effectiveness analyses to behavior change campaigns to pragmatic, scalable policies targeting the most vulnerable populations.
Household air pollution contributes substantially to ambient air pollution. Estimates of this contribution range between 20 and 45% globally, with large spatial heterogeneity. Reducing household air pollution from solid fuel use thus has benefits across scales — it benefits people in homes who rely on these fuels, but also provides benefits to communities and airsheds by reducing ambient air pollution levels.
Related projects: AAM-LASSI (active) Household sources of outdoor air (inactive)
Interventions to decrease household air pollution exposures have a long history, ranging from so-called ‘improved’ biomass stoves that burn available fuels cleanly to clean fuels, like liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol, to electricity. Our group works on evaluating interventions from cost, environmental, climate, and health perspectives.
Related projects: AERLIFT (active) AIR-C3 (active) HAPIN (active) Lao PDR stoves (inactive) Clean fuels pilot (Pune) (inactive) NBSP (inactive)
Our group makes measurements to estimate exposure and, in doing so, inform policies, evaluate interventions, and help provide evidence of potential health risk. Where instrumentation is lacking, we develop our own or adapt technologies used in other sectors and disciplines.
Related projects: AAM-LASSI (active) AERLIFT (active) SHRAM (active) Rapid Surveys (inactive)
AAM-LASSI (active) AERLIFT (active) AIR-C3 (active) HAPIN (active) SHRAM (active) N95 decontamination (inactive) Rapid Surveys (inactive) Lao PDR stoves (inactive) Clean fuels pilot (Pune) (inactive) Household sources of outdoor air (inactive) NBSP (inactive)