Results of a Survey of Residential Home Heating Fuel and Stove Type and Use in the Shiprock Area of the Navajo Nation
<p>For many Navajo people, coal provides an affordable and convenient means of home heating. However, coal combustion results in the formation and…
Public-domain full text preserved in the Mountain Man Mining Library. Original source: pubs.usgs.gov.
Diné College Results of a Survey of Residential Home Heating Fuel and Stove Type and Use in the Shiprock Area of the Navajo Nation By Joseph E. Bunnell and Linda V. Garcia
Open-File Report 2008–1249 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Department of the Interior DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Mark D. Myers, Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2008 For product and ordering information: World Wide Web: ://www.usgs.gov/pubprod Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS For more information on the USGS—the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment: World Wide Web: ://www.usgs.gov Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS Suggested citation: Bunnell, J.E., and Garcia, L.V., 2008, Results of a survey of residential home heating fuel and stove type and use in the Shiprock area of the Navajo Nation: U.S. Geological Survey OpenFile Report 2008–1249, 6 p. Available online at ://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1249/. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted material contained within this report.
Contents Background and Context 1 References Cited 1
Tables 1. Tabulated responses to the survey instrument for all 137 participants 3
2. Explanations of coded responses presented in Table 1 3
Results of a Survey of Residential Home Heating Fuel and Stove Type and Use in the Shiprock Area of the Navajo Nation By Joseph E. Bunnell1 and Linda V. Garcia2 Background and Context For many Navajo people, coal provides an affordable and convenient means of home heating. However, coal combustion results in the formation and mobilization of materials that are known risk factors for respiratory and other diseases (Yohe and Blodgett 1947; Finkelman 1993; Xu and others 1994). The level of respiratory morbidity among the Navajo people is higher than can be explained by usual epidemiological risk factors. The Shiprock area of the Navajo Nation is somewhat unique in that atmospheric thermal inversions trap air pollution low to the ground, especially in winter (Brown and others, 1996). There are two large mine mouth coal-fired power plants located in the vicinity, with a third plant in the planning stages. Both of the existing power plants are exempt from regulation under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act due to their age. The purpose of this survey was to assess the fuel and stove type and use, and document other household characteristics that might be related to the exposure of potentially toxic coal combustion products. A total of 137 surveys were conducted in English and Navajo to ascertain and document fuel usage and the type, size and conditions of heating stoves used in both traditional and modern homes. Results have been presented to the community at the Shiprock Chapter in the Navajo language. To increase public awareness, ways to properly use and store coal and to improve stove function and ventilation were also shared. References Cited Brown, L.F., Hickmott, D.D., Currier, R.P., Semken, S.C., Lameman, T., and Yazzie, S., 1996, Reducing adverse health effects and improving performance of stoves on the Navajo Reservation – a plan for action: Los Alamos National Laboratory Report LAUR-4016.
Finkelman, R.B., 1993, Trace and minor elements in coal, in Engel, M.H., Macko, S.A., eds., Organic Geochemistry: Plenum, New York, NY, p. 593-607.
Xu, X., Gao, J., Dockery, D.W., and Chen, Y., 1994, Air pollution and daily mortality in residential areas of Beijing, China: Archives of Environmental Health, v. 49, p. 216-222.
1 USGS, Reston, VA 2 Diné College, Shiprock, NM
Yohe, G.R., and Blodgett, E.O., 1947, Reaction of coal with oxygen in the presence of aqueous sodium hydroxide – effect of methylation with dimethyl sulfate: Journal of the American Chemical Society, v. 69, p. 2644-2648.
Table 1. Tabulated responses to the survey instrument for all 137 participants. Table 2. Explanations of coded responses presented in Table 1.