Solid Fuels

By

Acknowledgement

The researcher would like to thank all the members of HPA, for their assistance, words of advice, support and encouragement whilst working on this dissertation. In particular, a special mention goes to Prof. Virginia Murray for giving the researcher the ideas, suggestions and support at the beginning of this project which helped guide this study in the right direction. A very special and heartfelt thank you goes to Dr. Catherine Keshishian who gave the inspiration for this project and who helped at every step of the project constantly reviewing, suggesting and re-reviewing the work throughout. Without her help and support it would not have been possible to complete this project.

A very special thank you goes to Lillian Galabe, Senior Pollution Control Officer from London Borough of Hackney and Ian MacConnel, pollution control technician, from London Borough of Ealing, for taking time from their busy schedule to answer questions which helped build up the questionnaire used for the survey.

I owe earnest and sincere thanks to Amy Huxtable, administrator of this Masters programme for kindly collecting my responses for the survey and guiding me through various delays that occurred for completion of this study.

Not forgetting to thank the Health and Safety Executive for the personal communication the researcher exchanged with them. Thank you for your prompt reply and answering all the questions which helped the researcher to gain a better understanding of this project.

Finally, an extremely precious thank you to Norman Parkinson who was an excellent mentor throughout the course and being the best supervisor anyone could ask for. Your invaluable time, suggestions and guidance throughout this study made it possible to complete this project. You were constantly available and ready to help in every way possible.

Declaration

I [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

Signed __________________ Date _________________

Abstract

Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas which when inhaled can lead to various ill health effects depending on the dose and length of exposure. In some instances, it is also known to cause death. Carbon monoxide is produced as a result of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. This study looks at Co poisoning caused by charcoal and wood burning appliances used in restaurants and all the catering premises all over England and Wales. Three such incidents have come to HPA's notice recently. These involved CO poisoning of residents occupying flats above restaurants which used charcoal burning appliances. Due to faulty use, it produced CO which in turn seeped through floor boards, cracks and crevices and passed into the flats above resulting in high CO concentrations. There is legislation in place for gas appliances, but not much on non-gas or charcoal and wood fired appliances.

This study aimed to assess the scale of the problem of charcoal and wood burning cooking appliances in restaurants ...