This is the first time that researchers have been able to accurately estimate the number of premature deaths due to pollution from gas stoves. Scientists say they are linked to 40,000 premature deaths in Europe each year
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Gas stoves contribute to the premature deaths of approximately 40,000 Europeans per yearaccording to the conclusions of the first scientific study of this type.
For almost 50 years, the whole world has been aware of the dangers of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emitted by gas stoves. Researchers from the School of Health Sciences at Jaume I University in Spain estimated the number of annual deaths by linking existing health studies to NO2 readings in European homes.
They discovered that in 14 European countries, dangerous conditions are created inside the average home, as fumes from gas stoves combine with background pollution to violate the guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO).
“It was in 1978 that we learned that NO2 pollution was much greater in kitchens with gas stoves than in those with electric stoves. But it is only today that we are able to quantify the number of lives lost,” explains the lead author of the new study, Dr Juana Maria Delgado-Saborit.
“The scale of the problem is much worse than we thought, with our modeling suggesting that the average household in half of Europe does not meet the limits set by the WHO. Outdoor air pollution is at the “The source of these exceedances, but it is gas stoves that bring homes into the danger zone.”
Which European countries are most threatened by gas stoves?
Around a third of European homes cook with gas, and these homes tend to have the highest levels of NO2.
Italy, Poland, Romania, France and the United Kingdom are the countries that record highest number of premature deaths from gas stoves. Pollution is greatest in poorly ventilated homes and those where cooking takes longer.
Indoor air quality is a serious health issue because Europeans spend almost all of their time indoors and buildings receive less fresh air as homes are designed to be tighter.
It has also been found that gas stoves let methane escapea powerful greenhouse gas, even when they are turned off.
When it comes to outdoor pollution, NASA has recorded a significant drop in NO2 pollution in European cities over the past few decades, thanks to EU vehicle emissions rules and automotive technology . But background pollution remains a significant factor contributing to the dangerous levels found by the new study.
How did researchers calculate the number of deaths due to gas stove pollution?
This study could represent a significant advance in our understanding of the costs of gas cooking to human health.
The researchers used dozens of health studies that had established the likely risk rates ofasthma and premature deaths caused by a given level of NO2.
Previous studies could not apply the risk rates to the real world until last year, when Dutch researchers carried out extensive measurements of NO2 inside and outside homes in several European countries to produce the most accurate snapshot yet of indoor pollution caused by gas stoves.
The university used government datasets to extrapolate these results and produce regional maps of indoor NO2 pollution from stoves. These maps allowed researchers to calculate the first scientific estimates of premature deaths and cases of childhood asthma due to NO2 in Europe.
However, the true human cost of pollution due to gas stoves is probably much higher.
Due to a lack of data, researchers had to exclude some effects of pollution that could also contribute to higher rates of mortality and asthma. They focused only on NO2 pollution because it is well studied by epidemiologists.
Other harmful pollutants created by gas combustion include carbon monoxide, benzene, formaldehyde and particulate matter. The researchers say they did not have the data needed to accurately predict the impact of these pollutants.
Using a less precise method, They estimate that gas stoves cause about 367,000 cases of asthma in children and 726,000 cases across all age groups including these other pollutants, excluding carbon monoxide which has no known link to asthma.
How to combat pollution from gas stoves?
According to the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), the EU does not have standards for indoor air quality and the legislative tools available to it to tackle the problem are uneven.
The bloc is expected to propose updated rules for gas stoves later this year and has considered pollution restrictions, including for NO2.
EPHA is calling on Brussels to quickly phase out gas stoves by imposing emissions limits and introducing financial incentives to switch to cleaner stoves.
“For too long, it has been easy to ignore the dangers of gas stoves,” says Sara Bertucci, EPHA policy manager for global public health: “As with cigarettespeople have not thought much about the health effects and, like cigarettes, gas stoves are a small fire that fills our home with pollution.”
Just as governments have helped citizens quit smoking, EPHA believes they should also help us quit gas.
The alliance also wants cookers must be labeled by consumers to indicate the risks of pollutionand that public education campaigns be organized on the risks linked to the combustion of fuels inside homes.
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