Study finds that gas stoves can spread harmful pollution beyond the kitchen

Tina Johnson’s kitchen hasn’t changed much over the years. Her gas stove anchors the room, its click and blue flames a signal to her family that it’s time for a meal.

But testing done in her home in the Harlem neighborhood of New York and in others across the country show that people with gas and propane stoves breathe in unhealthy levels of nitrogen dioxide, which can trigger asthma and other respiratory conditions, according to a new study Stanford University researchers published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

The new research estimates that long-term exposure to the staple kitchen appliance could be responsible for 50,000 current pediatric asthma cases from nitrogen dioxide.

The study found that the nitrogen dioxide emitted from stoves didn’t just linger in the kitchen area but impacted the entire home - in some cases hours after the stove was turned off. Indigenous, Alaska Native, Hispanic and Black households, as well as low-income households, experience the highest exposure to nitrogen dioxide from gas and propane from cooking, the study found.

The study adds to the growing body of evidence that shows cooking with a gas stove creates indoor air pollution that can be harmful to human health. Friday’s study directly estimates health outcomes of nitrogen dioxide due to gas and propane stoves, and how those exposure levels vary based on housing sizing, ventilation practices and race and ethnicity.

“It compounds the injustice of air pollution: Poorer people, and often minority communities, breathe dirtier air outdoors all the time. And it turns out they also breathe dirtier air indoors. And it’s not fair,” said Rob Jackson, the principal investigator for this research.

People living in smaller residences, 800 square feet or less, were exposed to the highest concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, according to the study - more than four times the amount of longterm nitrogen dioxide concentrations for people in larger homes.

“Everyone in the home is paying the price or the cost for that, for breathing this pollution,” said Jackson, a professor of earth system science at Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability.

In half of the tested homes, bedroom nitrogen dioxide concentrations exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s and the World Health Organization’s hourly guidelines within 25 minutes of oven use.

Scientists measured nitrogen dioxide concentrations from more than 100 homes and used other data sets like home size, ventilation practices, cooking habits - to create an indoor air quality model and exposure estimates. They then used those exposure estimates to determine health risk estimates for asthma and mortality.