Contamination from gas stoves remains inside your home for hours even outside the kitchen.
Gas stoves often emit nitrogen dioxide in excess of levels considered safe by health authorities.
Approximately 40% of U.S. homes have gas stoves, which emit numerous compounds that are harmful to breathe, including carbon monoxide, particulate matter, benzene, and large amounts of nitrogen dioxide.
Decades of well-established research has linked nitrogen dioxide, or NO.2, and respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which particularly affect children and the elderly. This harmful relationship is so established that some states have begun banning the use of gas appliances in new construction. Now, new research has revealed the details of how long this gas spreads, spreads far, and lingers inside your home. Researchers sampled homes across the United States and found that many homes had different levels of exposure to NO.2 Even the bedroom furthest from the kitchen can rise several hours beyond the World Health Organization's one-hour exposure limit.
“The concentration is [of NO2] I took measurements from a stove that led to dangerous levels in my bedroom hallway…and stayed elevated for hours at a time. That was the biggest surprise for me,” says Rob Jackson, a sustainability researcher at Stanford University and lead author of the study published May 3. Science progresses.
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Researchers collected real-world data on NO.2 Six homes were tested for concentrations before, during, and several hours after use of gas and propane stoves in homes and apartments in California, Colorado, Texas, New York State, and Washington, DC.2 Perform a basic “bread baking” scenario in the bedroom furthest from the kitchen. Set your gas or propane oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit (245 degrees Celsius) and leave it on for 1 1/2 hours. The team continued sampling the air for up to six hours after the oven was turned off.
“NO” in all six houses.2 Concentrations in the bedroom quickly exceeded the WHO chronic exposure guidelines of about 5 parts per billion by volume. And in three of the bedrooms, the levels even exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's and WHO's respective one-hour exposure guidelines, both of which set limits at about 100 ppb by volume. (EPA does not regulate indoor air pollution, so EPA's guidelines cover outdoor air exposure.)
Bedroom exposure data from the new study can be seen in the graph above. “Think about this graph happening twice a day: He cooks for lunch and again for dinner. He may even cook breakfast. Days repeat,” Jackson says.
Jackson and his colleagues next wanted to find out which factors had the greatest impact on NO levels.2 Exposure from gas stoves. They used computer models to estimate airflow and pollutant concentrations in indoor spaces. They validated the model by comparing its estimates with directly measured NO concentrations.2 We investigated the behavior of gas stoves before, during, and after use in 18 homes with different sizes and floor plans. The researchers tested this by turning the range hood on and off, opening and closing the kitchen window, and ventilating the home between each experiment.
After confirming that real-world observations matched the model's predictions, the team was able to use the program to estimate the amount of NO.2 A variety of factors can make someone infected, including the size and layout of the home, how long windows are left open, and how often the stove's range hood is used.
Researchers found that people who live in homes less than 800 square feet or earn less than $35,000 a year are regularly exposed to nitric oxide levels.2 It meets or far exceeds the WHO threshold for chronic exposure. Finally, by combining these data with previous research on the association between long-term exposure to gas and propane stoves and childhood asthma, the researchers found that such exposures may contribute to the current 200,000 cases of childhood asthma. They calculated that 50,000 of these cases were caused by NO.2 alone.
“I think this modeled data is valuable because it gives us very clear numbers to see what the NO is.”2 We are exposed to different environments at different times during and after using a gas stove, says Laura Paulin, a pulmonologist who studies indoor air pollution at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine. says. She said: 'We are ignoring these outside air regulations. [and] Recommendations with indoor NO2 Just exposure, she says.
In a 2014 study, Pauline and her colleagues showed how people can reduce the concentration of this pollutant in their homes. The best option is to replace your gas or propane stove with an electric one. However, for some people, especially renters, this may not be a viable option.
If you're having trouble using a gas stove, Pauline recommends turning on your range hood every time you cook with gas, even if the fan noise is annoying. Still, these are not always very effective. Jackson and his colleagues found that the hoods in the homes they studied were 10 to 70 percent as effective. These numbers only apply to hoods that vent to the outdoors. Some hoods simply exhale air directly back into the living space, dispersing pollutants throughout the space.
Another way to improve ventilation is to open a window while cooking, if the weather is nice and the outside air is also unpolluted.
If all else fails, a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) air purifier can help remove some of these indoor pollutants. If your purifier has a carbon pre-filter, some NO can be removed.2 from the sky. Pauline's 2014 study found that having such filters in the kitchen can reduce NO.2 Level increases by 20%.
As we spend more of our lives indoors, it's become increasingly important to pay attention to the quality of the indoor air we breathe. “Outdoor air is getting cleaner and cleaner, but we have ignored indoor air pollution when considering the risks to people in this country,” Jackson says.
