Urban and Indoor Air Pollution in Developing World Discussed by CEES

Colorado Law’s Center for Energy and Environmental Security and Camco Global hosted a discussion last night on urban and indoor pollution problems in the developing world. The "Fuel For Life: Energy Justice For The Developing World" conference featured leading innovators and entrepreneurs working to address urban and indoor air pollution in the developing world through improved transportation and cooking technologies.

"Cooking is a universal part of life, but for the over 1.5 billion people who depend on coal and traditional biomass for their indoor cooking and boiling of water, it is also a source of disease and death," said Professor Lakshman Guruswamy, director of the center. "Pollution from cooking on an open fire or with a traditional stove results in the premature death of more than 1.5 million children and women from pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, lung cancer and asthma, and also causes chronic respiratory ailments and debilitating sickness."

Speakers included Professor Bryan Willson and Paul Hudnut. Willson is a professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado State University and founder of the school's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory. He is also the founder and co-founder of numerous sustainable energy companies and nonprofits, including Solix Biofuels and Envirofit International. Hudnut is founder of CSU's Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise Program, co-director of the school's Global Innovation Center for Energy, Health and the Environment and co-founder of Envirofit International. He also teaches entrepreneurship at the College of Business.

According to Guruswamy, both Willson and Hudnut are pioneering the design of retrofits that dramatically reduce pollution caused by millions of two-stroke engine vehicles. They estimated they could reduce two-stroke pollution by 90 percent using clean, fuel-efficient direct injection technology. Two-stroke engines emit extremely high levels of particulates that annually result in thousands of deaths, many more thousands of cases of respiratory illness and other social and environmental ills in Asian cities, said Guruswamy.