A new research carried out in the US has now found that about one in eight cases of asthma in children in the US is due to pollution given off by cooking on gas stoves.
This is as president Joe Biden’s administration considers the regulation and possible banning of the sales of gas cookers to Americans.
Data obtained in the US shows that about a third of US households have gas stoves in their kitchens, with the gas industry long touting the method as the cleanest and most efficient way to cook food.
However, the assertion has been contested by different researchers that have repeatedly found that the emission of toxic chemicals and carcinogens from gas stoves is creating a miasma of indoor pollution that can be several times worse than the pollution experienced outdoors from car traffic and heavy industry, irrespective of whether the stoves are turned on or off.
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The new study has now found that 12.7% of all current cases of childhood asthma in the US are due to the use of gas stoves as it explained the risk posed to children exposed to pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide that spew from the stoves in their homes.
Researchers who undertook the study said that of the 5 million children experiencing asthma in the US, around 650,000 of them could be suffering asthma attacks and having to use inhalers because of the presence of gas stoves in their homes.
“We knew this was a problem but we didn’t know how bad. This study shows that if we got rid of gas stoves, we would prevent 12.7% of childhood asthma cases, which I think most people would want to do,” said Brady Seals, manager of the carbon-free building’s program at RMI who undertook the research with epidemiologists in the US and Australia.
The new research, which analyzed the risk posed to children from gas emissions and the proportion of houses that have gas stoves, found that having the stoves greatly increased the risk of asthma, confirming previous studies that have looked into the issue in various countries.
Last year, researchers at Stanford discovered that levels of nitrogen dioxide emitted from gas stoves and ovens can rise above safe standards set for outdoor pollution by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within just a few minutes, with the problem particularly acute in smaller kitchens.
The EPA currently has no standard for safe levels of the pollutant indoors, with the potential health problems posed by gas stoves still largely unknown or overlooked by many people who use them. Using range hoods, opening windows and electrifying aspects of cooking, such as by using an electric kettle to boil water, can all lessen the exposure to pollution.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
