Experts reveal a new link between gas stoves and asthma

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who didn’t know that air pollution is bad for health – as a report by the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, recently pointed out, it kills up to 36,000 Britons every year.

However, once we get home and have closed the door and windows to this outside evil, we tend to think we can relax and breathe easily away from these toxic fumes.

But that’s not the case: There’s a lot of indoor air pollution, and it can be deadly, too, with research suggesting that even our gas stoves pose a health hazard, as a leading cause of asthma.

If this surprises you – as it does me – how concerned should we be about such findings and try to switch to electricity?

Not long ago, I treated a young man who had come to the ER with chronic headaches, nausea, and weakness. He and his GP had attributed it to stress and loneliness; stress from his new job and loneliness from working from home.

On the surface, his self-diagnosis made sense — aside from the additional symptoms that brought him to the emergency room. Over the past few days he had become confused and forgetful. These are not signs of stress.

And then he told me about his brother who used to stay with him on weekends and get headaches every time – only to have it go away when he left during the week.

This was the clue that gave away the diagnosis in an instant: and sure enough, when I checked the patient’s levels of carboxyhemoglobin, they were elevated. He had carbon monoxide poisoning.

Treatment was simple: we immediately gave him oxygen – and, crucially, we advised him to have his gas water heater serviced or replaced, and to avoid future problems he needed a carbon monoxide monitor.

If this man in his twenties had not come to us then, he might have died within a few days. Nor is he an isolated case. A review in last month’s BMJ Best Practice reported that this deadly indoor air pollutant killed 43 people in the UK in 2021 – many of these deaths could have been prevented with regular boiler checks and a carbon monoxide monitor costing less than £20.

Other indoor air pollutants are less directly deadly, but harmful nonetheless. Wood burners (even ‘eco-design’ burners produce 450 times more toxic particles than central heating) and candles (scented candles release chemicals that can trigger asthma).

Since learning this, I’ve ditched the lime and bay candles we used to burn at home.

But indoor air pollution also comes from other sources that we can’t really avoid, such as cooking.

A 2019 study by the University of Colorado in the US found that cooking a roast on a Sunday can cause as much pollution in the home as it does in the air of the world’s dirtiest cities.

Deep-frying and roasting is particularly bad: a lot of small particles are released (‘particulate matter’) that can penetrate deep into the blood vessels and lungs.

The fuel we use for cooking also matters. Cooking with gas stoves produces both nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, both of which can trigger asthma attacks – even if the stove is turned off due to the slow gas leak.

A study recently published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health estimated that a surprisingly high number — nearly 13 percent — of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. were due to gas stove use.

The researchers calculated this based on studies that showed more asthma in households that used gas stoves compared to electric stoves.

The data on increased risks came from a meta-analysis — a combination of a number of studies; these were all observations, where you look at two factors: a possible cause (ie having a gas stove) and a possible impact (ie developing asthma).

While this means we can’t be 100 percent sure that the gas stove is the cause of the increased risk of asthma, it is nevertheless a credible proxy.

Because to fully prove that gas is the cause, you would have to do a study where you randomly assign children to homes with gas or electric stoves and then compare asthma rates – and for obvious reasons, this would be unethical.

Observational data are often not considered “good science” compared to controlled studies, but that doesn’t mean they should be disregarded.

For example, the evidence linking smoking to cancer comes from observational studies.

In my opinion, the research on indoor air pollution is robust, and because asthma is so common, I’ve decided to replace my gas stove with a new induction hub.

I’m lucky though; I can afford it, but many others cannot.

Changes to VAT rates to encourage people to buy non-gas stoves would help, as would legislation requiring tenants to have electric induction hobs in their kitchens as standard.

The bigger point is that we need to accept that our home can be a source of indoor pollution and do what we can to reduce it.

First, make sure you have a carbon monoxide monitor, and if you have a gas boiler, have it serviced every year.

And as soothing as a wood-burning stove may seem, resist the temptation to buy one.

Also, avoid burning candles indoors and use an extractor fan when cooking – and think steaming rather than broiling or broiling.

All of this advice is even more important if you suffer from a respiratory disease such as emphysema or asthma.

But perhaps the best thing we can all do is go against what we naturally do: don’t close the windows to keep out pollution – open them and let the fresh air in!

Professor Galloway is on Twitter @drrobgalloway

Sussex University mathematicians have devised the formula for reaching sexual climax.

They analyzed data from different stages of the male arousal cycle in 10,000 people and found that too much psychological arousal early in the process can hinder the chances of reaching climax.

Simply put, our findings can be summed up as “don’t overthink it,” the researchers said. It could have applications for treating sexual dysfunction.

The peak of measles is a real concern

I read with alarm last week about the rise in measles cases – new data shows that while there were a total of 54 measles cases throughout the year in 2022, there were only 49 in the first four months of 2023.

If this rate continues, it would mean there will be 147 cases this year – three times the number last year. And behind the headlines is a hard truth: parents who believe false information and don’t give their child the MMR shot are to blame.

‘So?’ many will say: measles only causes fever, cough, runny nose and watery eyes. This is true for most children, but many others will develop significant complications, including blindness.

I was a physician in training in 1998 when Andrew Wakefield published a now-discredited article in The Lancet, which concluded completely incorrectly that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) jab was linked to autism.

I saw with my own eyes the impact of that false investigation. I was on night shift when a very young boy was taken to the ER. He was very ill with measles – his mother had believed Wakefield’s claims and had chosen not to have her son vaccinated with the MMR.

The three-year-old was admitted to intensive care and I will never forget his mother’s face when I told her it was just a matter of waiting to see if he would survive. He barely did it, and suffered severe brain damage.

According to the World Health Organization, 142,000 people worldwide died of measles in 2018. What’s so sad is that it’s preventable, but because of lower immunization rates, we risk seeing a rising toll.

Currently only 85 per cent of children in the UK get both MMR shots, but because measles is so contagious it should be 95 per cent. You have to have enough children vaccinated to create herd immunity, where the virus cannot spread across the population and therefore slowly dies out.

Without herd immunity, measles begins to spread and not only harms children whose parents choose not to vaccinate, but also affects those who may not be able to get the vaccine. This also applies to children undergoing chemotherapy and if a child undergoing cancer treatment gets the measles, the impact can be devastating.

So why is MMR vaccine uptake now low? Partly it’s vaccine fatigue, post-Covid; I suspect the Covid anti-vaxxer movement has also given impetus to the anti-jab movement in general. But the MMR vaccine is safe and effective, and there are many years of data to prove it.

But I also think people just don’t understand the terrible impact measles can have. So please, to avoid harming your child – as well as children suffering from cancer who can’t be vaccinated – make sure your little one gets the MMR vaccine.