Igor O'Neill

Igor O'Neill
Jakarta

Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Oct. 7 announced the
government's plan to spend Rp 150 billion (US$15 million) to buy
10 million coal stoves as a part of the government efforts to
diversify energy resources and to reduce the costly subsidy for
kerosene.

Such a move is at odds with research-based public health
initiatives such as the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air,
discussed here in Indonesia during the preparatory conference for
the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The
initiative addresses the increased environmental health risk
faced by more than two billion people in the developing world who
burn solid fuels indoors.

According to the World Health Organization, exposure to indoor
cooking with solid fuels results in an estimated 1.6 million
premature deaths each year, largely among women who do most
cooking, and children who are at increased risk of death by
respiratory infection.

Poor ventilation is a key factor increasing the health risk
from cooking with coal briquettes. Many households in Indonesia
make do without stovetop hoods or a proper chimney designed to
create a draft to draw cooking fumes upwards and out of the
kitchen.

Homes with chimneys or hoods still experience some risk as
shown in a carefully controlled study Lung Cancer and Indoor
Pollution from Heating and Cooking with Solid Fuels, published
earlier this year in the American Journal of Epidemiology. This
study found that even in Eastern/Central Europe and the United
Kingdom where most homes are equipped with chimneys, cooking with
solid fuels including coal significantly increases the risk of
lung cancer, while switching to "modern" nonsolid fuels reduced
the risk.

Studies conducted in China have detailed the nature and causes
of health risks to women and children of cooking with coal:
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons formed during coal combustion
are a cause of oesophageal and lung cancers, and other combustion
products increase rates of acute respiratory infections and
chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (such as bronchitis and
emphysema).

Amongst cooking fuels, coal brings unique health problems
because of a tendency to contain sulfur, mercury, arsenic,
selenium and fluoride contaminants. The quality of coal chosen
for cooking is important. According to University of Pittsburgh
research published in 2004, women in Xuan Wei County, China who
cook indoors with local coal have 20 times the normal rate of
genetic mutations that greatly increase their risk of developing
lung cancer.

Elsewhere in China, in a paper entitled Health impacts of
domestic coal use in China researchers from the U.S. Geological
Survey and the Institute of Geochemistry, Guizhou estimated that
at least 3,000 people in Guizhou Province in southwest China are
suffering from chronic arsenic poisoning apparently from
consuming food prepared over fires fueled with coal.

Clay binders used to make briquettes can boost the levels of
fluorine naturally present in coal, with an estimated 10 million
people in China suffering from dental and skeletal fluorosis
(bone deformation) caused by eating foods prepared over fluoride-
containing coal briquettes.

In light of the Chinese experience, the government should
provide details of the levels of toxic contaminants in the coal
produced by proposed coal briquette manufacturer, PT Batu Bara
Bukit Asam in order to assess the level of public health risk.

In terms of fire safety, coal briquettes are not necessarily
as safe as they seem at first glance: Impatience or lack of
safety training commonly leads to burn injuries when cooks apply
too much liquid fuel to start coal briquettes burning, or if they
mistakenly use an explosive starter fuel such as gasoline. Spent
briquettes which appear to be extinguished can hold heat inside
for several hours and may start a fire if disposed of too soon or
into a plastic container.

Although a kilogram of coal briquettes seems cheap, we must
take into account that it contains only around 60 percent of the
energy (5500 kcal) of a liter of kerosene (8900 kcal), and less
than half the energy of a kilogram of liquid petroleum gas (11900
kcal).

The government's plan to procure 10 million coal briquette
stoves seems a hastily contrived reaction to community outcry
over the unpopular policy to reduce fuel subsidies. However,
choosing which cooking fuels to support entails examining the
needs of different users and the various health, environmental
and poverty benefits and impacts.

Coal is not an ideal replacement fuel, and fortunately there
are a range of low-impact alternatives available. For rural
communities, castor oil and biomass fuels produced from
agricultural wastes such as coconut and rice husks are a
renewable and readily obtainable resource eminently worthy of
research and investment. The Agency for the Assesment and
Application of Technology (BPPT) has also determined that solar
cookers are viable supplements to fuel-burning stoves.

Where distribution centers can be established, particularly in
towns, cooking with liquid petroleum gas (LPG) is healthier,
easier and more efficient, providing instant on/off and
adjustable heating. Indonesia enjoys world-class gas reserves.

The hurdle for most families is that purchasing an LPG stove
costs around Rp 250 000, and a gas bottle costs around Rp 350
000. For LPG to be affordable it must compete with the purchase
price of a kerosene stove at only Rp 100 000. If the government
is looking for a place to relocate subsidies to benefit the poor,
perhaps it could consider narrowing this gap.

In contrast with renewable biomass fuel, coal is a non-
renewable fossil fuel which brings health risks for indoor use
and environmental impacts through open-cut mining and greenhouse
gas emissions. It is doubtful that cooking with coal briquettes
will be popular, and given the adverse impacts, cooking with coal
is not the best choice for public health or the environment.

The writer is WALHI (Indonesian Forum for Environment)
national office staff. He can be reached at igor@walhi.or.id.