Study Finds Gas Stoves Are Bad for Your Health

Cooking with a gas stove could emit more toxic nano-sized particles into your home than a diesel car, scientists from Purdue University have found.

The findings come a year after the humble kitchen appliance was thrust into the culture wars after Biden-appointed commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. suggested a ban might be "on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants."

Trumka's remarks elicited sharp rebuke from many, particularly conservatives, with Representative Ronny Jackson, the Republican from Texas, then tweeting: "If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!" The Consumer Product Safety Commission later said it was not planning a ban.

According to the latest estimates by the Energy Information Administration, roughly 38 percent of U.S. households rely on gas stoves, although this distribution varies significantly across the country. For example, in California, approximately 70 percent of homes cook using natural gas, while in Florida only 8 percent of homes have gas stoves.

Most research into indoor air pollution produced by gas stoves has focused on fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (known as PM2.5). But very little is known about pollution at the nanoscale—one-thousandth of a micron—because it is just so hard to measure.

However, in the latest study from Purdue, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, the team was able to focus on the emissions of tiny airborne nanoparticles with a diameter of only 1 to 3 nanometers.

"These super tiny nanoparticles are so small that you're not able to see them. They're not like dust particles that you would see floating in the air," Brandon Boor, an associate professor at Purdue's Lyles School of Civil Engineering and lead author on the research, said in a statement.

Particles of this size, known as nanocluster aerosols, are particularly concerning because they are just the right size to infiltrate our respiratory system and spread to our other organs. Therefore, it is important that we study these particles to fully understand the health risks of air pollution.

In their study, the team used state-of-the-art air quality instrumentation to measure how many of these tiny particles were emitted while cooking on a gas stove in a "tiny house" laboratory setup. The tiny house, known as the Purdue Zero Energy Design Guidance for Engineers lab, has all the features of a normal house but is also equipped with sensors to closely monitor the impact of everyday activities on the surrounding air quality.

In total, the team found that as many as 10 quadrillion nanocluster aerosol particles could be emitted per kilogram of cooking fuel, matching or exceeding that produced by petrol and diesel engines. In other words, adults and children who live in a household with a gas stove could be breathing in 10 to 100 times more nanocluster aerosols from cooking than they would from car exhaust while standing on a busy street.

"After observing such high concentrations of nanocluster aerosol during gas cooking, we can't ignore these nano-sized particles anymore," Boor said.

The researchers said that using an exhaust fan would likely redirect these nanoparticles away from your respiratory system, but more work needs to be done to confirm this.

Previous research has found that children who live in homes with gas stoves are more likely to develop asthma, with a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in December 2022 finding that 12.7 percent of current childhood asthma in the U.S. is attributable to gas stove use.