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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/03/gas-stoves-nitrogen-dioxide-pollution>
"Using a gas stove increases nitrogen dioxide exposure to levels that exceed
public health recommendations, a new study shows. The report, published Friday
in
Science Advances, found that people of color and low-income residents in
the US were disproportionately affected.
Indoor gas and propane appliances raise average concentrations of the harmful
pollutant, also known as NO₂, to 75% of the World Health Organization’s
standard for indoor and outdoor exposure.
That means even if a person avoids exposure to nitrogen dioxide from traffic
exhaust, power plants, or other sources, by cooking with a gas stove they will
have already breathed in three-quarters of what is considered a safe limit.
“When you’re using a gas stove, you are burning fossil fuel directly in the
home,” said Yannai Kashtan, lead author of the study and a PhD candidate at
Stanford University. “Ventilation does help but it’s an imperfect solution and
ultimately the best way is to reduce pollution at the source.”
Nitrogen dioxide irritates the airways and can exacerbate respiratory illnesses
such as asthma. The Stanford study estimates that chronic stove-based nitrogen
dioxide exposure is linked to at least 50,000 cases of pediatric asthma in the
United States each year. The research, which measured NO₂ in more than 100
homes before, during, and after gas stove use, found that pollution migrates to
bedrooms within an hour of the stove turning on, and stays above dangerous
levels for hours after use.
“It’s moving throughout our whole home much faster than we expected,” said Rob
Jackson, professor of Earth system science at Stanford and co-author of the
study. “You have to think about the effects of this not just in one cooking
event, but multiple times a day, for lunch and dinner, across weeks and
months.”
Roughly 38% of households in the US use gas stoves, according to the Energy
Information Administration, but not all of them are exposed to NO₂ equally. The
study suggests that size of the home is an important factor, with people living
in residences less than 800 sq ft showing chronic exposure four times the rate
of people living in homes with 3,000 sq ft.
“Older homes are more likely to be smaller, and more often have gas stoves
which reflects the nature of our housing stock,” said Jon Samet, professor of
environmental and occupational health at the Colorado School of Public Health,
who was not involved in the study. “It’s good to see this work focusing
attention on indoor air, particularly in our homes, because that’s where we
spend most of our time.”
The results also highlight the unequal racial and socioeconomic burden of
exposure. The study found that American Indians and Alaska Natives are exposed
to 60% more NO₂ from gas and propane stoves than the national average. Black
and Latino or Hispanic households breathe in 20% more NO₂ from their stoves.
People in households making less than $10,000 a year are breathing NO₂ at rates
more than twice that of people in households making over $150,000."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
