Effect of cleaner-burning cookstoves to be investigated in Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The University of Illinois will receive a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to research how cleaner-burning cook stoves will affect air quality in Mongolia, says chron.com on May 29. Similar studies will be conducted in Alaska, Nepal, and China. The EPA said Wednesday that the University of Illinois was one of six universities to receive about $9 million in funding to investigate cleaner technologies and fuels for lighting, heating and cooking. The World Health Organization estimates that cookstove smoke accounts for over 4 million premature deaths each year. The EPA says almost 3 billion people are exposed to household air pollution from crude stoves. Such stoves are a major source of black carbon, which affects people's health and contributes to climate change.