Study links gas stoves to 50,000 current cases of childhood asthma

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: WBUR/NPR

May 03, 2024


Air pollution from gas and propane stoves has caused about 50,000 current cases of childhood asthma nationwide, and people living in smaller homes are more likely to be affected. That’s according to a new study released Friday from researchers at Stanford and Harvard Universities.

The study looked specifically at nitrogen dioxide, which is emitted by gas and propane stoves when the burners are on. The pollutant can trigger asthma, coughing, wheezing and other health problems.

“Not only can it make asthma worse, it can actually cause new cases, especially in children,” said Kari Nadeau, chair of the department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-author of the study.

Nadeau, who is also a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said that the estimate of 50,000 asthma cases is “conservative,” since the study only considered one of several pollutants emitted by gas and propane stoves. When considering other pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, “the full impact may be closer to 200,000 cases,” she said.

Read more: https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/05/03/gas-stoves-childhood-asthma-nitrogen-dioxide

[FakeNoose]

1. Who sponsored this study? Wait ... don't tell me ...

General Electric.



You know, a lot more American houses are heated with natural gas furnaces ... but not one has ever caused a single instance of childhood asthma. Hmmmm....

[unc70]

2. Furnaces are usually vented to the outside

That greatly reduces the indoor air pollution from furnaces.

There have been studies for decades that confirm the negative health effects of gas stoves, particularly on lung functions and asthma among children and young adults.

BTW even worse are areas of the world still using charcoal braziers for cooking.

[Martin68]

5. In many places wood fires are still used for cooking indoors. I confess to having eaten food cooked on an indoor wood

fire, and it is incredibly delicious.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. One of the issues that was highlighted

was for those who live in small apartments/rentals with little or no ventilation for a kitchen (particularly studio apartments with stoves that have no overhead vent hood or one that is actually vented to the outside). I think there was mention of the problem not really seen until you get to dwelling areas of 800 sqft or less.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

12. Good lord. Really?

GE makes gas stoves and gas furnaces vent almost 100% outside otherwise they would kill you.

This place…

[Martin68]

4. Proper ventilation should take care of that issue.

[unc70]

6. Research does not support the "ventilation" solution

The nitrous oxide indoor rapidly diffuses throughout the entire dwelling even in the presence of supposedly "adequate" ventilation. This is a serious public health issue.

[Martin68]

8. Considering the widespread use of gas for cooking indoors (I've been doing it for over 50 years) and the lack of

any evidence of a widespread occurence of health issues as a result, I suspect the danger is highly overstated except for those with pre-existing conditions such as asthma. Why am I still alive and healthy? My parents lived into their 90s. They cooked with gas all their lives. How is that possible?

[unc70]

9. Your anecdote is not a scientific study

Last edited Sat May 4, 2024, 03:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Contrary to your claim, there are widespread health issues associated with gas stoves. Researchers have been aware of these problems for decades. The indoor pollution impact is comparable with second hand smoke from tobacco, only invisible and nearly odorous.

It is obvious you don't want to believe other is a problem and you really like cooking with gas.

[Martin68]

11. According to Scientific American,""Most of the studies on the health effects of cooking gas have been observational."

"The American Gas Association (AGA), a natural gas industry group, issued a statement pushing back against the December 2022 study that linked gas cooking with asthma. The statement claimed the study authors did not conduct measurements of real-life appliance use and ignored some of the scientific literature on this topic. The AGA cited a separate study that found no evidence of a link between cooking with gas and asthma symptoms of diagnosis.

Most of the studies on the health effects of cooking gas have been observational because it would obviously be unethical to intentionally expose children to environmental risks, says Ulrike Gehring, an associate professor at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and a co-author of the 2013 meta-analysis. Still, some past studies have measured NO2 concentrations in various indoor settings and have shown that people with asthma have more severe symptoms when they’re exposed to higher levels of the gas. Although observational studies cannot prove that cooking with gas causes asthma, Gehring says, accounting for other risk factors such as parental asthma and secondhand tobacco smoke “increases our confidence” that it does."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-health-risks-of-gas-stoves-explained/

[Elessar Zappa]

14. Well, my parents and I all have asthma

and we had gas stoves. But my anecdotal story is irrelevant as is yours. Science isn’t based on people’s stories.

[Martin68]

15. I have no doubt people with pre-existing conditions are vulnerable to gas emissions, as I noted earlier.

While I did provide a personal anecdote, I'm not basing my views on "people's stories." I would expect a fair more widespread and serious international epidemic over the last 80 years if cooking with gas in a well-ventilated space were dangerous. As the Scientific American noted, the scientific evidence is "observational," which is the scientific version of "people's stories." If you have asthma I suggest you go electric. If you are allergic to peanuts, I'd suggest avoiding peanuts.

[NickB79]

13. NPR: Gas stoves leak climate-warming methane even when they're off

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/27/1075874473/gas-stoves-climate-change-leak-methane

In fact, it turned out that's when about 80% of methane emissions from stoves happen, from loose couplings and fittings between the stove and gas pipes.

"Simply owning a natural gas stove and having natural gas pipes and fittings in your home leads to more emissions over 24 hours than the amount emitted while the burners are on," says Stanford professor of earth sciences Rob Jackson, one of the study's authors.

There are surprisingly very few measurements of this "incomplete combustion from appliances," says Eric Lebel, lead author of the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. Lebel conducted the research as a graduate student at Stanford and is now a senior scientist at PSE Healthy Energy.

Based on this study, it doesn't sound as though ANY homes are properly ventilated, because we haven't had the true numbers to determine how much pollution stoves actually emit. If you're basing ventilation needs on emissions only when the stove is used, your house would be horribly under ventilated.

[DemocraticPatriot]

7. Well, I was a furnace worker for many years,

and we always vented furnace gas to the outside of the house
(because if we didn't, it could KILL you.. and a too-old furnace can do the same,
if the heat exchanger has been burned through...)


Gas stoves on the other hand, mostly do NOT vent their gases outside of the house....

Yeah, they take a lot longer to KILL you,
but that can't be healthy....

(Glad I kept the electric stove when I moved in here,
and didn't move to gas....)

[hunter]

10. My parents cooked with gas and I had severe asthma as a child.

Hmmmm...

My dad quit smoking when I was ten, but my grandma, who sometimes lived with us, never did. Smoking is probably what killed her.

There was a lot of bad air making my childhood miserable.

From my personal perspective both the natural gas industry and the tobacco industry can go to hell. As a practical matter I don't think either of those positions ought to be part of the Democratic Party platform. Too many people still believe "cooking with gas" is a good thing and that gas is some kind of magical "transition" fuel.

Yeah, I do cook with gas. If it was entirely up to me I wouldn't. But I will be getting rid of our gas water heater and furnace in the next couple of years. We live in a mild climate and modern heat pumps have a smaller environmental footprint than gas water heaters and furnaces, even with about 35% to 40% of our electricity coming from gas and other fossil fuels.