Exposures to carbon monoxide in a cookstove intervention in Northern Ghana

Improved cooking technologies could generate environmental health benefits, yet prior results regarding reduced personal exposure to air pollution are mixed. In this study, two improved stove types were distributed over four study groups in Northern Ghana.

Participants wore real-time carbon monoxide (CO) monitors to measure the effect of the intervention on personal exposures. Relative to the control group (those using traditional stoves), there was a 30.3% reduction in CO exposures in the group given two Philips forced draft stoves (p = 0.08), 10.5% reduction in the group given two Gyapa stoves (locally made rocket stoves) (p = 0.62), and 10.2% reduction in the group given one of each (p = 0.61).