RTI International Staff Members to Serve on U.S. Technical Advisory Group for Clean Cookstoves

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – RTI International staff members Myles Elledge, Ryan Chartier, and David Stokes, Ph.D., have been invited to serve on the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee 285 for clean cookstoves and clean cooking solutions.

Indoor air pollution from biomass cooking is a significant contributor to the global burden of disease. Nearly 2 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to indoor air pollution from solid fuel use. To date there is a lack of global guidance on household energy use and health, and there are few national-scale cookstove programs.

The group, organized by the American National Standards Institute in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, is working to address that. Members work to improve livelihoods and protect the environment by developing a strategy for the universal adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels.  

The functions and responsibilities of the advisory group include helping to develop the U.S. position on the draft ISO International Cookstove Standards and providing assistance in the development of technical reports.

The first meeting was held in August in Washington, D.C. The global technical advisory group will meet in Nairobi later this year to discuss guidelines for evaluating cookstove performance.

At RTI, Chartier is a chemist working on programs that focus on personal aerosol exposure assessment. These programs include a series of internal and external research efforts to develop small monitoring devices for situations demanding low burden applications. Chartier is currently working with the Gates Foundation to build the next-generation microPEM (PEM=personal exposure monitoring) device for use in cookstove exposure assessment.

Elledge, a senior director at RTI, manages technical assistance and applied research consulting projects in emerging-market countries. He has led a team of RTI staff members working in Sri Lanka on biomass stove use and exposure monitoring over the last two years.  

Stokes, a senior research engineer, manages the sensor power and device packaging area for the Center for Solid State Energetics. He has led the development of a thermoelectric cookstove add-on device, including technology development and field testing in Kenya with support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Energy.