Is it time to ban g

55%
is the amount venting cooker hoods can cut indoor pollution

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CHAD SPRINGER/CULTURA CREATIVE RF/ALAMY
Research has linked gas
stoves to 1 in 8 US cases of childhood asthma


they didn’t have a gas stove,” he says.
Research into indoor air pollution
is only just starting to catch up with
outdoor pollution studies, having
been held back for years by the challenges in shrinking measuring equipment to make it suitable for use inside homes. Now, the studies are coming thick and fast, showing that gas stoves cause spikes in indoor air pollution many times the levels on a busy city street. Kelly points to recent
research in London, where children
went to school wearing backpacks
kitted out with air pollution monitors.
“Many of the children were
actually exposed to more pollution at
home in the evenings, when one of the parents was cooking, than what
they actually were seeing on the way
to school,” he says.
Another study found that residents of southern California using gas
stove tops are routinely exposed to
nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde
levels that exceed safety thresholds
for outdoor pollution set by US authorities. The problem is worse
in smaller homes without adequate
ventilation. “One could argue that
the risk associated with a gas stove
is likely to be larger than living in a polluted city,” says Steffen Loft at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.


cooking on gas may be exposing
over 100 million people to levels of indoor air pollution that would violate EU outdoor air pollution regulations, according to research published this month by the NGO Clasp. It is calling
for all gas stoves to come with health warning labels.
However, policies related to
climate change may force the issue
first. By 2025, no new homes in
the UK will be built with fossil fuel
heating, a move that will almost certainly mean those homes are
kitted out with electric induction
stoves rather than gas ones. In the
US, President Joe Biden’s Inflation
Reduction Act will offer households subsidies of up to $1340 to switch
from a gas to induction stove.
Researchers agree that if people
have the opportunity, they should change to electric cookers. This is a
“relatively easy way of reducing your particulate matter and nitrogen oxide exposure”, says Nicola Carslaw at the University of York, UK.
In the meantime, opening a
window and using an extractor fan
can make an immediate difference
to indoor air quality, she says –
effective cooker hoods that vent to
the outside can cut pollution levels
by 55 per cent, studies suggest. ❚

21 January 2023 | New Scientist ^| 17