Cooking on gas stoves can push people’s exposure to nitrogen dioxide above international safety limits, according to a Stanford University study released Friday.
Emissions from gas stoves travel beyond a home’s kitchen to “distant bedrooms” and can linger there at levels that exceed World Health Organization guidelines, even hours after a stove is turned off, the researchers wrote in the paper published in Science Advances.
“This is producing air pollution at dangerous levels time and time again, and people are breathing it in,” co-author Rob Jackson said.
A poisonous gas, nitrogen dioxide can cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems when it is released by burning fossil fuels in power plants, cars and stoves. The study, which used real-world measurements and computer modeling, also found that using gas stoves can expose people to roughly 75 percent of the WHO-designated safe levels of long-term nitrogen dioxide exposure.
