Improved Biomass Cookstoves

Cultivating a demand for clean cookstoves

by Brian E Robinson

Science (2011), with Jill C. Baumgartner

In their policy forum “a major environmental cause of death” (14 October, p. 180), W. J. Martin II and colleagues... more In their policy forum “a major environmental cause of death” (14 October, p. 180), W. J. Martin II and colleagues highlight the need to stimulate market demand for clean cookstoves because “a stove purchased by the consumer is inherently more valued than one that is received without charge.” This widely held view has been challenged, however, by evidence from recent randomized controlled trials studying other preventative health products.