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Owners of Patsari stoves add their own improvements, such as ceramic tiles.

The Grupo Interdisciplinario de Tecnología Rural Apropiada (GIRA) has developed the 'Patsari' stove for making tortillas and general household cooking, and has measured significant improvements in the health of women who use the stoves as well as reductions in air pollution and wood use.

About 95% of rural Mexican households cook with wood on open fires. Although this is bad for their health and uses unsustainable wood resources, the majority cannot afford to change to cleaner liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), even though the government encourages this. This situation is especially acute among poor indigenous people in the Central Mexican Highlands, where thousands of micro-enterprises run by women sell hand-made tortillas cooked over open fires for long hours each day.

GIRA started a stove programme to improve the health and security of households, bring new opportunities for small businesses, and improve the supply of wood. The Patsari stove, developed through a participatory approach involving stove-users, is an improvement on the 'Lorena' design with a more efficient combustion chamber and made of more durable materials, including a prefabricated metal chimney and hotplates. GIRA has shown that respiratory disease decreases by 30% and eye infections by 50% in women who use the Patsari stove rather than an open fire, thanks to 70% reduction in indoor air pollution. Fuelwood use is halved. Users greatly appreciate having cleaner, smoke-free kitchens.