using Gas stoves can increase levels of carcinogenic gasoline A newly released study shows that it can reach dangerous levels throughout the home for several hours after use.
The study, published last week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, is the first to measure gasoline emissions from gas stoves and ovens, and found that levels of the toxic chemical exceeded benchmarks deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We found that an elevated single gas burner or oven set to 350 F for 45 minutes raised the concentration of gasoline above the concentration of gasoline in about one-third of the cases we measured,” said Yanai Kashtan, a graduate student at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability and lead author of the study. He said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
The data was collected from 87 households in 11 counties in California and in Colorado.
Researchers have found that the chemical spreads slowly throughout the home, leading to high levels for hours after cooking.
“Within half an hour, the stairs will start going down the hall,” Rob Jackson, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and co-author of the study, said in a briefing Tuesday. It takes six hours or more in some cases for gasoline to return to background levels.
Proof of installation
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Acute gasoline poisoning can cause symptoms such as drowsiness., dizziness, rapid or irregular heartbeat, headache and even death at a very high level. Long-term exposure to benzene reduces the number of red blood cells, causes anemia, weakens the immune system, and causes cancers such as leukemia.
A 2018 systematic review of research published in International Child Health He got asthma diagnoses And the frequency of asthma symptoms reported in children exposed to benzene in the air is higher.
Hot topic
Gas stoves have been the source of much political controversy in recent years, as other recent studies have shown that emissions of pollutants such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide from gas stoves increase childhood asthma.
That prompted a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to publicly consider regulating gas stoves, including banning their future sales, sparking outrage from Republicans and conservatives and prompting the commission’s chairman. To reject such a plan.
The Department of Energy (DOE) proposed at the end of January to increase the energy efficiency of gas stoves, which will reduce pollution from them. In May, House Republicans held a hearing against that proposal and earlier this month passed bills intended to block any gas stove regulation.
“Gas furnaces have gotten a lot of attention recently, and one of the reasons they’re such a potential health risk is that they’re the only fossil fuel that emits pollutants in the home,” Jackson said. “We can’t stand by cars that breathe dirty air, but we stand by our stoves and breathe in the pollution they emit.”
The gas industry and its GOP allies say regulations in Congress that would take gas stove models off the market would limit consumer choice.
“Fifty percent of the market does not comply with the DOE rule. That’s a huge amount of gas cooktops,” said Matthew Agen, general counsel for energy efficiency at the American Gas Association. “A large number of desirable products with features that people want are removed.”