ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to analyze the factors enabling/limiting the use of improved cookstoves among rural fuel wood users from one mestizo and two indigenous communities eight years after an intervention in the state of Michoacan, in Mexico.MethodsA qualitative study with an ethnographic perspective was conducted in 2013/2014 based on 62 interviews with women who had participated in an improved firewood cookstove program in 2005. Thematic qualitative content analysis was performed.ResultsVery few women from the indigenous communities were using the improved cookstove at the time of the study; the majority had dismantled or had ceased using it; whereas most of those from the mestizo community were using it for all of their cooking activities. In the indigenous communities, characterized by extended families, uptake of new technology was limited by traditional routine practices, rearrangement of rooms in the house, attachment to the traditional stove, a low- or non-risk perception of woodsmoke; gender relations, insufficient training, non-compliance with program recommendations and design-related aspects. Conversely, in the mestizo community, the uptake of the improved cookstove was favored by routine cooking practices in a nuclear family, a previous use of a raised cookstove and social representations on the health-disease-death effects of woodsmoke vs. the health benefits of cooking with improved stoves. The sociocultural dimension of communities and the cookstove design are aspects that either favor or limit the use of improved cookstoves in indigenous and mestizo populations.ConclusionsEffective cookstove programs must take these elements into account from their early planning stages, and blend them into implementation and follow-up. Project communication, training and differentiated follow-up activities ensuring the operation and maintenance of the cookstove, should be designed according to the specific needs and traditions of each community; they should be based on the preferences and needs of the users.
A series of investigations, using an ecosystem approach to human health, have been conducted in the Molango Mining District in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. Given that risk perception plays a key role in the public response to environmental exposures, it is important to recognize the perceived health risks of manganese (Mn). The aim of this study was to analyse the Mn risk perception by describing the attitudes of adult residents toward their communities, assessing the importance they give to environmental problems, including Mn, and their recognition of the links established between Mn and health-illness-death. A quantitative study based on interviewer-administered questionnaires was conducted. A sample of 402 residents was randomly selected from six communities at different distances from the mines and/or Mn processing plants. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models were used to identify Mn risk perception predictors. The results show that roughly 30% of the residents identified mining activities and the resultant pollution as their most important concern. This proportion is greater in communities that have processing plants within them. More than 70% perceive a high Mn pollution regionally, but this proportion decreases when the residents attribute the pollution to their home area. More than 20% of the adults interviewed associated Mn exposure with their own illness, mainly "lungs" and "sight." Factors influencing Mn risk perception are community of residence, age group (41-60), and the report of having a chronic illness. The risk management plan for the mining district must take into account these differences to have a greater local impact.
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