[Stoves] Stove safety in India: height requirement

[adkarve]

Dear Crispin,
the accidents with stoves occur almost exclusively with stoves that use LPG.
LPG is used mainly in the cities, in modern apartment houses, where cooking
is conducted on a cooking platform.  L.P.G. causes accidents mostly when it
leaks. In that case it accumulates near the floor and then explodes when
somebody lights a match or turns the electric switch on. Kerosene is no
longer used in India as a cooking fuel, because it is simply not available.
The price of kerosene has deliberately been kept low because it is used by
the poor as fuel for cooking and lighting. But because of its low price, it
is also used massively as an adulterant in Petrol.One has to really hunt for
kerosene and pay black market price for it.  The wood burning stoves do not
cause serious accidents.
Women in villages prefer to sit on the floor while cooking because that that
is how they learnt to cook since they started helping their mothers. My own
mother, who had a Ph.D. from Berlin University and who used to teach
anthropology in the University of Pune, used to cook sitting on the floor.
In fact she used to tell us, that women in Europe suffered from vericose
veins because they did all the work standing up and because they neveer
rested their legs and feet.
Yours
A.D.Karve
----- Original Message -----
From: Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at gmail.com>
To: Stoves <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2007 1:14 PM
Subject: [Stoves] Stove safety in India: height requirement


Dear Dr AD

I was reading
http://www.worldburn.org/documents/burns_fires_domestic_appliances.pdf  and
found this:

Kerosene stoves were responsible for 27 burns (57%); flames from normal use
caused 11 burns, catastrophic explosions caused five burns, and
unintentional ignition of fuel outside containers caused 11 burns. The
circumstances contributing to the incidents included the following.
· Adding kerosene to a hot stove
· Lack of other illumination in the dwelling
· No pressure gauges on pump stoves
· Inexperience - user kept valve open while pumping
· Stoves placed at ground level, igniting clothing
· No smoke detectors or fire extinguishers
· Average time to extinguish was 6 minutes
· No knowledge of first aid
· No emergency medical system
· Lack of schooling
· Physical or mental disability
· Seizure disorder
· Forgetfulness
· Unawareness of material's flammability

"The typical profile of a hospitalized burn patient in Karachi in 1992-1993
was, ". (a) young, uneducated woman, wearing loose clothing, injured in the
kitchen, around a stove, who (was) ignorant of fire safety, experienced
prolonged contact with fire, received no first aid, was transported to the
hospital in a common carrier, had 57 percent TBSA burned, and died after 2
days."

A surprising % of deaths were from assaults with a burning stove.

As you have mentioned the height of the stove as a consumer demand, it may
be that a social intervention rather than a technical one is needed.

Many of the Indian burn victims (at least 200,000 deaths annually from
stoves) were set on fire by catching loose clothing alight while the stove
was sitting on the floor.  This is obviously dangerous, even if the stove
itself is a very safe device.  Dangling loose saris over a low flame is
going to cause problems.  Is there no way to promote stove safety by
elevating the stove to a safe level, away from children and at what a lot of
people would consider a convenient height for sitting beside the stove on a
stool?  Why are people so wedded to the low stove?

The additional height of gasifiers may have an impact on burn injury
statistics by limiting the ignition of clothing.

Regards
Crispin
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