War on gas stoves has flared up again: Cooking grilled cheese is more toxic than breathing in car exhaust, study claims
The natural gas heater in your home may emit more harmful nanoparticles than the exhaust of a gasoline car, according to new research.
Clouds of these small particles, also called soot, are each between one and three nanometers in size. They’re just the right size to get stuck in your lungs and infiltrate the bloodstream, said the scientists from Purdue University and Indiana University who conducted the new study.
Researchers discovered that cooking is simple A grilled cheese sandwich can expose residents to as much as 10 million nanocluster aerosols per cubic nanometer, ccompared to the approximately 1 million released by cars near a busy street.
The news comes about a year after some officials at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission considered banning gas stoves — a move that never came to fruition but became a political lightning rod.
Gas heaters have been shown to emit nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter, all of which have been shown to have negative effects on human health. The new research shows how long particulate matter can linger in the home.
Researchers at Purdue University are using this test house to study the effects of cooking on a gas stove on indoor air quality.
Exposure to millions of particles of particulate matter, even over a relatively short period of 24 hours, can be harmfulThis was reported by the California Air Resources Board.
Nanocluster aerosols can contribute to respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis, and increase the chance that someone will need to go to the hospital for heart or lung conditions.
Exposure to these nanoparticles has even been linked to dementia and cognitive decline.
More than a third of the homes in the USAbout 47 million of them have propane or natural gas heaters.
“Combustion continues to be a source of air pollution around the world, both indoors and outdoors,” lead study author Brandon Boor, an associate professor of civil engineering at Purdue, said in a statement.
‘We discovered that cooking on your gas stove produces large amounts of small nanoparticles that enter your airways and are deposited efficiently.’
The team used an air quality system to test nanoparticles in a ‘tiny house’ laboratory, which was equipped with sensors to closely monitor the impact of daily activities on a home’s air quality.
In addition to measuring how many nanocluster aerosol particles a propane heater generates, the scientists also used computer models to estimate how many of the particles someone might inhale.
Trillions of nanocluster aerosol particles were emitted within just 20 minutes of boiling water or making grilled cheese sandwiches or buttermilk pancakes on a gas stove.
And during that twenty-minute period, they estimate that an adult could inhale between 10 billion and a trillion of those particles.
This is between 10 and 100 times the dose of soot you would get if you stood along a busy street for the same amount of time, the study authors wrote.
The study only examined the nanoparticles from gas stoves and cars, not other air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide or carbon monoxide.
The nanocluster aerosol emanating from the gas stove was also found to easily mix with larger particles released into the air from butter, oil or whatever is cooking on the gas stove.
Although the particle concentrations increased rapidly during cooking and reached their peak after about 20 minutes, they disappeared quickly.
A combustion engine produces particulate matter in the form of nanocluster aerosols, such as those examined in the new study. Roadside exhaust, scientists discovered, actually contains a similar concentration of nanocluster aerosols as a kitchen with a gas stove – sometimes less.
Lead author of the study, Brandon Boor, said the small particles created by gas stoves should be considered a unique form of pollutant.
The data shows that the particles settle out of the air about as quickly and return to baseline levels within 10 to 20 minutes.
This is likely due to the combined effects of ventilation and the particles settling on surfaces.
The situation is similar with cars: as long as they are emitted, they remain in the air. But as soon as the heater goes out or the cars stop driving by, the soot will quickly settle.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to reduce the concentration of these harmful particles.
For people who have one of these stoves in their home, the scientists behind the study recommend turning on a fan when cooking on it.
“Since most people don’t turn on their extractor fans while cooking, having automatic extractor hoods would be a logical solution,” says Boor.
“Going forward, we need to think about how we can reduce our exposure to all types of indoor air pollutants,” he continued. ‘Based on our new data, we recommend that nanocluster aerosol be considered a separate category of air pollutants.’
The study appeared in the magazine on Tuesday PNAS nexus.
Despite the proposed 2023 ban on gas stoves, there are no new federal rules regulating home appliances – after public backlash led the CPSC to reconsider its position.
It is difficult to definitively link gas stoves to human disease, which has led to a heated debate over whether a ban is justified.
However, some local governments have tried to create new regulations based on research showing that indoor gas stoves produce high levels of pollutants.
Berkeley, California, for example, banned them in 2019. But last year a court overturned the ban.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has said she wants to ban them from new buildings by 2030, but… she is up for re-election in 2026.