Last night, I attended the Rose Café where house professor Garrick Blalock presented about the challenges he has faced in getting people in Uganda to adopt new, cleaner, cookstoves which would benefit their own health and the health of the environment.  4 million people die from the smoke created by the traditional three stone cookstoves every year.  So why are people still choosing to continue cooking the traditional way when their health and the health of their children is at stake?

There is no clear answer to this question, but Prof. Blalock and his fellow researchers have been working on this issue, and have found ways to increase adoption of newer cookstoves. However, fours years after introducing the technology to families, 50% of the families no longer had the cookstove and 0% were still using them.  They had reverted back to the traditional three stone cookstoves.

Prof. Blalock used the analogy of buying a car to clarify this problem.  In the US, most people want to make the world a better place and know that driving a car is damaging to the environment.  Most people also understand that driving a Prius is better for the environment, but very few people actually own a Prius. For Ugandans, these newer stoves cost more upfront, even though they save money on fuel in the longterm, just like the Prius. Even when the economic barrier is reduced and people are allowed a free trial and financing, there is no longterm adoption of the technology.

As an engineering student, when I think of the problem of women and children dying from lung damage due to stoves that produce a lot of smoke, I automatically think of designing a cleaner stove and making it available to these people.  However, in this case, a technological solution is not sufficient.  It is not a lack of technology that is the issue, but cultural and economic factors that are preventing adoption of the technology.