Can cooking your ratatouille with gas have a link with your child's asthma?

Two recent studies accuse cooking with gas of being responsible for around 12% of childhood asthma cases in the United States and Europe: provisional results that are debated, especially since gas is encouraged, particularly in the countries in development.

The first study, published in December in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, estimates that 12.7% of childhood asthma cases in the United States can be attributed to cooking gas, even as the developing countries are encouraged to use this energy as an alternative to coal and wood with established harmfulness.

In the United States, the gas lobby sweeps the results

“Using a gas stove is pretty much like having a smoker live in your house,” said lead author Talor Gruenwald.

This Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) study is based on a meta-analysis of 41 previous studies, combined with US census data, and echoes 2018 Australian research, which attributed 12.3% of childhood asthma to these stoves.

Chance of the calendar, similar results in Europe were unveiled on Monday by the associations Clasp, Respire and the European Alliance for Public Health.

By conducting laboratory tests and computer simulations, the Organization for Applied Scientific Research in the Netherlands estimates that 12% of childhood asthma cases in the European Union are also linked to this method of cooking.

This report, commissioned by NGOs and not published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, concludes that levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exceed 5 days out of 7 the maximum limits set by the World Health Organization, i.e. 25 micrograms/cubic meter outdoors.

And this in most cases (cooking modes and duration, ventilation, type of housing, etc.).



In the US, where around 35% of kitchens run on gas (30% in the EU), this issue has been hotly debated for several weeks.

Some, like the US gas lobby AGA, brushed off the results, calling them "pure mathematical exercise in promoting a cause, with nothing scientifically new".

But for Stanford University's Rob Jackson, author of research on methane pollution from gas stoves (even when turned off, via leaks), they corroborate "dozens of other studies concluding that breathing indoor gas pollution can trigger asthma.

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  • Health

  • UNITED STATES

  • Europe

  • Asthma

  • Gas