Collaborative Clean Air Policy Centre (CCAPC)
CCAPC is a new partnership among the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Sri Ramachandra University Chennai, University of California Berkeley, and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Delhi. UrbanEmissions.info, a credible information centre providing research, and analysis related to air pollution, serves as the Centre’s knowledge partner. With its Secretariat housed at TERI, New Delhi, CCAPC focuses on comparing and evaluating policy options for dealing with India’s health-damaging air pollution of all types, indoor, outdoor, rural, and urban. It will facilitate a platform for institutions to work together to make appropriate policy recommendations and provide actionable solutions to manage the problem. By virtue of its nature of work, CCAPC will also work closely with but be independent of the Ministries of Health; Petroleum; New and Renewable Energy; and Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and Indian Council of Medical Research. In addition to publishing policy papers that will help enhance the understanding of air pollution management, the activities of CCAPC will also involve running a post-doctorate program with mentorship across all four partner institutes. http://www.ccapc.org.in/
Newborn Stove Project (NBSP)
NSBP – a partnership between the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN), Columbia University, UC Berkeley, and Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute (Deemed to be University) – evaluated the feasibility of distributing clean cookstoves through the rural antenatal care system, which targets arguably the most vulnerable population – poor, pregnant, rural women. The study distributed 200 fan-assisted semi-gasifier stoves to pregnant women at INCLEN's SOMAARTH field site approximately 90 kilometers south of Delhi. We tracked usage of the stoves continuously for 15 months using our Stove Use Monitoring System (SUMS) and measured pollutant concentrations and exposures before and after introduction of the stove. Funding for this project came from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Lung Foundation, and the World Bank. For more information, see
Mukhopadhyay R, Sambandam S, Pillarisetti A, Jack D, Mukhopadhyay K, Balakrishnan K, Vaswani M, Bates MN, Kinney PL, Arora N, & Smith, KR., 2012. Cooking practices, air quality, and the acceptability of advanced cookstoves in Haryana, India: an exploratory study to inform large-scale interventions. Global Health Action, 5. doi:10.3402/gha.v5i0.19016
Pillarisetti A, Vaswani M, Jack D, Balakrishnan K, Bates MN, Arora NK, Smith KR, 2014, Patterns of stove usage after introduction of an advanced cookstove: the long-term application of household sensors. Environ Sci Technol 48 (24), pp 14525–14533.
Balakrishnan, K, Sambandam, S, Ghosh, S, Mukhopadhyay K, Vaswani M, Arora NK, Jack D, Pillariseti A, Bates MN, Smith KR, 2015. Household air pollution exposures of pregnant women receiving advanced combustion cookstoves in India: Implications for intervention. Annals of Global Health, 81(3), 375–385. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.aogh.2015.08.009
Village and Regional Pollution from Household Fuels
This multi-year project has three goals and is conducted with several US and Indian partners at the Haryana SOMAARTH site noted above and operated by INCLEN. The contribution of household fuels to outdoor air pollution has been estimated to be substantial in many parts of the world, for example about one-quarter of ambient PM2.5 in India, but has not been well characterized. This is partly due to lack of understanding of how much such sources contribute to secondary particle formation in the atmosphere, a significant portion of outdoor pollution exposure. Although outdoor pollution is widely recognized as a problem and most major governments, including India’s, have clean air legislation, there is little understanding of the degree to which clean household combustion will be needed to meet outdoor air pollution goals. Quantifying these relationships through over all seasons is one purpose of this project. Funding has come from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Current publications include
Sneha GS, Edwards R, Yadav A, Weltman R, Pillarsetti A, Arora NK, Smith KR, 2016. Probe-based measurements of moisture in dung fuel for emissions measurements, Energy for Sustainable Development, 35 (December): 1-6.
Fleming LT, Lin P, Laskin A, Laskin J, Weltman R, Edwards RD, Arora NK, Yadav A, Meinardi S, Blake DR, Pillarisetti A, Smith KR , Nizkorodov SA, 2017, Molecular composition of particulate matter emissions from dung and brushwood burning in household cookstoves in Haryana, India, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2017-784
Making the clean available: understanding and expanding LPG use
As part of efforts to understand the benefits of expanded usage of LPG in households, the group is now engaging both in policy analysis through the Centre in Delhi, above,but also field work. Included are
Enhancing LPG Usage among Pregnant Women in Maharashtra: We are exploring several options for accelerating the transition from biomass to LPG fuels in a rural area of Maharashtra in a non-randomized trial among pregnant women. We are comparing usage among four arms in this study 1) women receive only the standard package of upfront costs as in the national LPG program; 2) women in addition receive free fuel during pregnancy; 3) women are paid in a conditional cash transfer mode according to the number of meals they cook on LPG using a newly developed device, called the Pink Key; 4) women recruited at marriage, but receive only the standard package. We are also exploring the extent to which continued usage of the biomass stove can be discouraged. Partners include the KEM Hospital Research Group in Pune and Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute of Chennai. This project is funded by the Implementation Science Network of the US NIH.
LPG RCT: We are assisting with the Tamil Nadu randomized controlled trial site run by Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute. It is part of HAPIN, the four-country HAP RCT (PI: Tom Clasen, Emory University). Professor Smith and his team are providing guidance on household air pollution exposure assessment, health effects monitoring, study design, and data analysis and are helping with the liaison with the LPP community. This is funded mainly by the US NIH.
Smokeless Village Initiative: An evaluation of Smokeless Villages in Karnataka being initiated by Indian Oil Company, is being done with Professor David Levine of Haas School of Business of UC Berkeley. Professor Smith and his team established the connections in Karnataka and assisted with the overall study design.