Boston College researchers lead the first study to assess role of peer networks for 'clean cooking’ public health initiatives.Chestnut Hill (Mass. (6/29/2021). -- Researchers from Boston College have found that India's personal networks could be an important factor in the adoption of cleaner cooking fuels, such as liquefied petroleum gases, according to a report in Environmental Research Letters.Praveen Kumar, a Boston College Assistant Professor in Social Work, said, "This is the first clean cooking report to show that, just like tobacco use, obesity or physical activity -- where networks play a part in shaping our behavior and decisions -- we find personal networks are also associated what types of stoves rural poor people use."Rural India is home to many households that rely heavily on solid fuels like firewood, charcoal, and animal dung for their household cooking. The use of traditional stoves has been shown to have adverse effects on the health of both neighbors and household members.In India, where there are 1.4 billion people, it has been shown that household air pollution is responsible for approximately 600,000.Non-governmental and government organizations have been working for decades to help households switch to cleaner fuels. However, slow progress has been attributed mainly to demographic, economic and educational barriers.Researchers studied 198 people from 30 villages in Andhra Pradesh, a southern Indian state. Respondents were evenly split between those who adopted LPG or those who did not.Kumar, a scholar in energy access, said that Kumar found that respondents are more likely to have cleaner cooking technologies if they have more friends or peers who use cleaner cooking technology. "On the other side, a greater likelihood exists that a respondent will also have a traditional stove if they have a large number of friends who use them.The report's co-authors include Kumar, Liam McCafferty, Amar Dhand and Dean Gautam Yadama of Boston College School of Social Work, of Harvard Medical School. Smitha Rao of Ohio State University. Antonia Daz Valds, of Universidad Mayor in Chile. Rachel G Tabak, Ross C Brownson, of Washington University."This study by Kumar underlines the importance of behavioral as well as social drivers in the adoption of clean technology technologies, critical to improving health and the environment for the poor," Yadama, a authority on the dissemination and implementation clean energy systems for improved health and wellbeing in India, said.Kumar said that the findings will have implications for policymakers who want to continue convincing poor households to switch to cleaner cooking fuels."The transition from traditional to clean cooking is crucial -- not only in India. Kumar said that this is a worldwide public health problem. While governments have attempted to facilitate the transition, more must be done. We have found that clean cooking should be a social policy. This includes personal network analysis and strategies for social networking. Personal networks are vital if we are to make clean cooking more accessible.Kumar stated that the next step in the research should be to explore the threshold for personal networks with cleaner stoves, which could help households transition to cleaner cooking.###
