Background:Emissions from solid fuels used for cooking cause ~4 million premature deaths per year. Advanced solid-fuel cookstoves are a potential solution, but they should be assessed by appropriate performance indicators, including biological effects.Objective:We evaluated two categories of solid-fuel cookstoves for eight pollutant and four mutagenicity emission factors, correlated the mutagenicity emission factors, and compared them to those of other combustion emissions.Methods:We burned red oak in a 3-stone fire (TSF), a natural-draft stove (NDS), and a forced-draft stove (FDS), and we combusted propane as a liquified petroleum gas control fuel. We determined emission factors based on useful energy (megajoules delivered, MJd) for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx), black carbon, methane, total hydrocarbons, 32 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PM2.5, levoglucosan (a wood-smoke marker), and mutagenicity in Salmonella.Results:With the exception of NOx, the emission factors per MJd were highly correlated (r ≥ 0.97); the correlation for NOx with the other emission factors was 0.58–0.76. Excluding NOx, the NDS and FDS reduced the emission factors an average of 68 and 92%, respectively, relative to the TSF. Nevertheless, the mutagenicity emission factor based on fuel energy used (MJthermal) for the most efficient stove (FDS) was between those of a large diesel bus engine and a small diesel generator.Conclusions:Both mutagenicity and pollutant emission factors may be informative for characterizing cookstove performance. However, mutagenicity emission factors may be especially useful for characterizing potential health effects and should be evaluated in relation to health outcomes in future research. An FDS operated as intended by the manufacturer is safer than a TSF, but without adequate ventilation, it will still result in poor indoor air quality.Citation:Mutlu E, Warren SH, Ebersviller SM, Kooter IM, Schmid JE, Dye JA, Linak WP, Gilmour MI, Jetter JJ, Higuchi M, DeMarini DM. 2016. Mutagenicity and pollutant emission factors of solid-fuel cookstoves: comparison with other combustion sources. Environ Health Perspect 124:974–982; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1509852

We have studied the mutagenicity of the water from Lake Bloomington and of the tap water that is made from the lake water. The lake, which is the source of drinking water for Bloomington, Illinois (pop. 44,000), is surrounded by land that is farmed intensively--being mainly in maize and soybeans. Samples were collected monthly from May through October 1979 and concentrated 3,000X with XAD-2 resin. Nearly all of the lake and tap water concentrates were mutagenic in Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 in the presence of S-9 mix, and the May tap water concentrate was highly mutagenic. In addition, many of the concentrates were toxic to the bacteria in the absence of S-9 mix. Chemical analysis of the highly mutagenic tap water concentrate from May revealed the presence of a number of organic contaminants that were absent from control concentrates prepared from deionized and distilled treated-well water. In addition, unconcentrated lake and tap water were tested in a reverse-mutation test in maize (Zea mays); no mutagenicity was detected. This study indicates that the contamination of drinking water with agricultural and/or industrial chemicals may result in a potential health hazard.

submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Curriculum in Toxicology and Environmental Medicine in the School of Medicine.

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