Household heating associated with disability in activities of daily living among Chinese middle-aged and elderly: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: The health hazards of indoor air pollution are well-established but studies of the health effects due to pollution from heating are rare. This study investigated the association of heating and disability for activities of daily living among Chinese middle-aged and elderly. METHODS: We used two consecutive surveys in a cohort of over 17,000 adults aged 45 or older, who were interviewed first in 2011-2012 and then in 2013. In these surveys, taking advantage of random survey time, we applied a random effects logit regression model that included an interaction between pollution-producing heating fuel and a dummy variable, which measured interview time based on whether or not it was heating season. RESULTS: Exposure to pollution-producing heating fuel was associated with a 39.9% (OR 1.399; 95%CI 1.227-1.594) and 71.0% (OR 1.710; 95%CI 1.523-1.920) increase in the likelihood of disability in activities of daily living (DADL) and disability in instrumental activities of daily living (DIADL), respectively. In heating season between year 2011 and 2013, moving from clean heating energy for heating to pollution-producing fuel was linked with an increase in the likelihoods having DADL and DIADL, with the OR of 2.014 (95%CI 1.126-3.600) and 1.956 (95%CI 1.186-3.226), respectively. However, disability increases due to change from clean energy to pollution-producing heating energy did not appear in advantaged education respondents. CONCLUSIONS: We found that exposure to heating by burning of coal, wood, or crop residue was associated with disability in performing daily living activities. Health policymakers should take indoor pollution due to heating into consideration as it is a major determinant of activities of daily living in elderly people; especially, such policy should focus on elderly people who have disadvantaged education.

Advanced household heat pumps for air pollution control: A pilot field study in Ulaanbaatar, the coldest capital city in the world.

Ulaanbaatar - the coldest capital in the world - is home to half of Mongolia's population, much of which uses coal for household heating, contributing to high wintertime air pollution. We piloted two-stage air-to-air heat pumps in 2017, when temperatures dropped to -39 °C. These heat pumps were reliable and efficient, with an average coefficient of performance of 1.86 on the coldest days. Heat pumps' recurrent costs were similar to those of coal stoves and lower than those of resistive heaters.

Datasets of Great Britain primary substations integrated with household heating information.

The growing demand for electrified heating, electrified transportation, and power-intensive data centres challenge distribution networks. If electrification projects are carried out without considering electrical distribution infrastructure, there could be unexpected blackouts and financial losses. Datasets containing real-world distribution network information are required to address this. However, the existing dataset at NERC that covers the whole of Great Britain (GB) does not provide information about demand and capacity, which is insufficient for evaluating the connection feasibility. Although each distribution network operator (DNO) has detailed network information for their supply area, the information is scattered in separate files and different formats even within the same DNO, which limits usability. On the other hand, studying the coupling between energy systems and societal attributes such as household heating is important in promoting social welfare, which calls for more comprehensive datasets that integrate the social data and the energy network data. However, social datasets are usually provided on a regional basis, and the link to energy networks is not straightforward, which explains the lack of the comprehensive datasets. To fill these gaps, this paper introduces two datasets. The first is the main dataset for the GB distribution networks, collecting information on firm capacity, peak demands, locations, and parent transmission nodes (grid supply points, namely GSPs) for all primary substations (PSs). PSs are a crucial part of UK distribution networks and are at the lowest voltage level (11 kV) with publicly available data. Substation firm capacity and peak demand facilitate an understanding of the remaining room in the existing network. The parent GSP information helps link the released datasets to transmission networks. These datasets are collected, standardised, and merged from various files with different formats published by the six DNOs in GB, using a Python script and manual validation. The second dataset extends the main network dataset, linking each PS to the number of households that use different types of central heating recorded in census data (Census in year 2021 for England and Wales, and Census 2011 for Scotland as the up-to-date Census 2022 data is not fully released). The derivation of the second dataset is based on the locations of PSs collected in the main dataset with appropriate assumptions. The derivation process may be replicated to integrate other social datasets. The datasets have the following reuse potentials: 1) Given the PS demand, capacity, and locations in our datasets, users can estimate the connection feasibility and evaluate the optimal deployment locations for different energy technologies, including electric vehicles, heat pumps, and the growing data centres, under different scenarios and at a national scale. These evaluations are beneficial not only for academic research, but also for industrial planning and policy making. 2) Our extended dataset links household information to distribution networks. The integrated information facilitates cross-disciplinary research and analysis across social science, energy policy, and power systems. 3) The network demand and capacity information provided by the datasets can also help with realistic parameter settings to improve the accuracy of case studies in broader power system research.

Influence of boiler output and type on gaseous and particulate emissions from the combustion of coal for residential heating.

The study describes gaseous and particulate emissions from the combustion of two types of coal (hard and brown) in three types of boilers (one modern-type and two old-type boilers) used for residential heating. The importance of the heat outputs (nominal and two reduced outputs) for the emission of pollutants was also studied. Three outputs (95-108%, 58-73% and 26-50%) covered the expected operation of these boilers in real households under different outdoor air temperatures in the winter. Gaseous components (NOx, SO2, CO, CO2, OGC) and particulate organic compounds (n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, hopanes) were determined in the emissions. In general, the emission factors (EFs) of the products of incomplete combustion were higher from the combustion of coal in old-type boilers than from that in the modern-type boilers. The EFs of particulate matter varied between 11.6 and 17.0 g kg-1 (hard coal, the oldest-type boiler), and 0.290 and 0.544 g kg-1 (brown coal, the modern-type boiler). The trends between the EFs of particulate organic compounds and the outputs of boilers were observed only with the automatic boiler (modern-type boiler). Similar trends for old-type boilers were not observed, probably due to the high instability of the combustion process as a result of the old construction of these boilers. Diagnostic ratios of the PAHs and the homohopane index, used for source apportionment of particulate matter in ambient air, were calculated. While the calculated homohopane indexes were similar to those reported in the literature, the calculated diagnostic ratios for PAHs related to coal combustion were different.

Comparison of emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from the combustion of biomass and coal in modern and old-type boilers used for residential heating in the Czech Republic, Central Europe.

The chemical composition of emissions from old-type (an overfire boiler, a boiler with down-draft combustion) and modern-type (an automatic and a gasification boiler) boilers was compared. The boilers were operated with different fuels (brown and hard coal, wet and dry wood, wood pellets and brown coal briquettes) with reduced output (40-60%). The emissions were characterized by the contents of gaseous components (NOx, SO2, CO, CO2, OGC); and particulate organic compounds (alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, saccharides), including organic markers (monosaccharide anhydrides, diterpenoids, methoxyphenols, hopanes), which are used for source apportionment of particulate matter in ambient air. In general, emissions of the products of incomplete combustion (CO, particles, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) were higher from the combustion of solid fuels in old-type boilers than from that in modern-type boilers. The modern-type (especially automatic) boilers were the most environmentally friendly. The highest concentrations of particulate matter (81.6-89.4 g kg-1) and particulate organic compounds (sum of PAHs: 225-275 mg kg-1) including organic markers were found in emissions from old-type (overfire) boilers, especially with the combustion of brown and hard coal. Characteristic ratios of selected organic compounds/markers applied for source identification were calculated. Computed characteristic ratios for monosaccharide anhydrides (biomass combustion) agreed with values in the literature. Homohopane indexes, frequently used for identification of coal combustion, and other characteristic ratios for PAHs, were different from the literature data. In our opinion, characteristic ratios for PAHs are not suitable for use in source apportionment.

Household heating associated with disability in activities of daily living among Chinese middle-aged and elderly: a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND@#The health hazards of indoor air pollution are well-established but studies of the health effects due to pollution from heating are rare. This study investigated the association of heating and disability for activities of daily living among Chinese middle-aged and elderly.@*METHODS@#We used two consecutive surveys in a cohort of over 17,000 adults aged 45 or older, who were interviewed first in 2011-2012 and then in 2013. In these surveys, taking advantage of random survey time, we applied a random effects logit regression model that included an interaction between pollution-producing heating fuel and a dummy variable, which measured interview time based on whether or not it was heating season.@*RESULTS@#Exposure to pollution-producing heating fuel was associated with a 39.9% (OR 1.399; 95%CI 1.227-1.594) and 71.0% (OR 1.710; 95%CI 1.523-1.920) increase in the likelihood of disability in activities of daily living (DADL) and disability in instrumental activities of daily living (DIADL), respectively. In heating season between year 2011 and 2013, moving from clean heating energy for heating to pollution-producing fuel was linked with an increase in the likelihoods having DADL and DIADL, with the OR of 2.014 (95%CI 1.126-3.600) and 1.956 (95%CI 1.186-3.226), respectively. However, disability increases due to change from clean energy to pollution-producing heating energy did not appear in advantaged education respondents.@*CONCLUSIONS@#We found that exposure to heating by burning of coal, wood, or crop residue was associated with disability in performing daily living activities. Health policymakers should take indoor pollution due to heating into consideration as it is a major determinant of activities of daily living in elderly people; especially, such policy should focus on elderly people who have disadvantaged education.