[Stoves] Cooking With Corn Cobs in Saipina, Bolivia

[adkarve]

Dear Stovers,
the large majority of LPG accidents in India are due to explosion. LPG is
heavier than air. If it leaks due to any reason, it accumulates near the
ground and when a person wanting to light the gas the next day switches the
electric light on, or clicks with the piezo-electric lighter, the spark
causes an explosion. These accidents, because they cause a lot of damage,
are reported in the newpapers with regular frequency. Accidents due to
clothing catching fire are rare. Women generally know how to take care of
their sarees while cooking. Kids getting scalded by tipping boiling water or
soup over their own heads is more common than clothing catching fire due to
LPG.
Yours
A.D.Karve
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Taylor <rt at ms1.hinet.net>
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves <stoves at listserv.repp.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Cooking With Corn Cobs in Saipina, Bolivia


> David Whitfield wrote:
>
> > Concerning the safety of using the LPG, first I have to ask, is
> > bottled LPG safe?  AD recently reports that most stove injuries in
> > India are from LPG.  Secondly, we did not recommend that installation
> > procedure, we just reported on what we say and thought it interesting
> > that they used an old gas stove as the base for their new rocket
> > stove and now only use the fancy gas stove to make the morning tea.
>
> I'm no expert on LPG safety, but the bottles can leak from the valve or
the
> pipe, if they are poorly maintained, and the bottle itself can leak if it
> rusts through. If the bottle is close to a source of flame, particularly
in
> an enclosed space, it would seem that any leak is more likely to lead to a
> fire or explosion than if they are separated.
>
> Here in Taiwan the LPG bottle is usually out on the balcony, on the other
> side of a wall from the kitchen. The gas bottles are subject to periodic
> inspections and a time limit on their total life. I don't know how
> effectively these are enforced in general, but in my experience gas
> suppliers take them seriously. Most apartment kitchens have two gas
burners
> (no oven) at a similar height to the hob in European and North American
> kitchens. Natural gas is available in larger towns, while LPG is the norm
in
> suburban and rural areas. People cook standing up; the cooking style is
> Chinese. I don't have any statistics, but from news reports and public
> awareness campaigns I have the impression that one major kind of accident
is
> small children being scalded by pulling hot pans down on themselves. I
don't
> think clothing fires are a big thing here--I guess that the danger in
India
> comes from the low position of the stove, and the voluminous clothing that
> women there wear. Water heating here is also mostly by gas, and,
> particularly in winter, there are often reports of deaths from carbon
> monoxide poisoning due to poor ventilation of water heaters, either
because
> they are illegally installed indoors or because people have installed
> windows on their balconies and operated the heaters with the windows
closed.
>
> Robert Taylor
>
>
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