Every morning, millions of Americans light the gas stove in their kitchens to boil water and toast hash browns, but they don’t just have the smell of a delicious breakfast wafting through their homes. Blue flames also emit harmful pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and greenhouse gases.
So a team of scientists from Stanford University recently took a test tour of apartments in New York City to better understand the extent of pollution and how it flows from room to room in people’s real homes. embarked. This is one of ten city studies that have already shown how pollutants can drift rapidly into living rooms and bedrooms, and in some cases well beyond the stove that generated them. It is part.
Concerns about the health and climate impacts of gas stoves have already led some cities and states to seek to phase out natural gas connections in new buildings, and the federal government is also pushing for tougher efficiency standards for gas stoves. moving. However, the issue is polarizing.Last week in Washington, Republicans called a public hearing The House Oversight Committee is “investigating the Biden administration’s regulatory assault on American gas stoves.”
On a crisp Sunday morning, the Stanford University scientists made their first stop in New York City. It’s a public housing project in Morningside Heights in Upper Manhattan. Their first challenge was to carry 300 pounds of equipment up to his 18th floor. “Hopefully there’s an elevator,” said Rob Jackson, a professor at the Stanford Dore School of Sustainability and the leader of the team, cautiously. (there was.)
The three-bedroom apartment they were visiting was home to Tina Johnson, a mother of three grown-up children, overlooking a railroad overpass and featuring an eat-in kitchen filled with the scents of herbs and spices. Yes, she uses it to cook her favorite dishes. American style ratatouille. Mrs. Johnson had just made a breakfast of fried eggs and potatoes.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she told researchers. A new stove had just been installed in her unit, but she still “can’t stand the smell” of the gas coming out of it. Mrs Johnson said she volunteered to participate in her research through a local climate change organization because she and her children have asthma and other health problems. She wanted to know what effect the stove would have on the air they breathe.
nose level tube
The researchers turned on the analyzer and set to work installing a tube at approximately nose level to draw in an air sample. After taking background readings, it was time to turn on the gas. Turn one small burner on high.
The machine immediately detected a change, an increase in nitrogen dioxide concentration. Adverse health effects, can irritate the respiratory system, aggravate symptoms of respiratory diseases and cause asthma. The concentration increased fivefold to 500ppb. Safety benchmark for 1 hour exposure Set by the Environmental Protection Agency. (Concentrations of benzene, a human carcinogen in cigarette smoke and car exhaust, also tripled.)
This was with the doorway to the kitchen sealed and the windows closed. Mrs. Johnson’s kitchen also doesn’t have a stove hood to help with ventilation.
Opening the door to the kitchen and smashing open the window, as Mrs. Johnson used to do while cooking, reduced nitrogen dioxide levels to about 200 ppb, she said. But that also meant that the smoke from the stove would seep into the rest of the apartment.
In one bedroom, nitrogen dioxide levels reached about 70ppb, well below but well above EPA limits. World Health Organization Chronic Exposure Standards.
There is growing scientific evidence about the health risks of gas stoves.one paper A paper published late last year found that nearly 13% of childhood asthma cases in the United States may be associated with gas stoves. Research so far Gas stoves have also been shown to exacerbate asthma symptoms.
There are some simple steps people can take to reduce the hazard, such as opening windows and buying an air purifier.
Dr. Jackson later said that one of the characteristics of New York housing was that people tended to work, relax, and sleep at home much closer to the gas stove than those living in the suburbs. That’s what it means. Overall, “the biggest surprise to me is not just how high the concentrations are, but how quickly the pollutants spread around the house,” he said.
“Dinner Party Scenario”
The next day, the team resumed testing in a different location, this time at an Airbnb apartment in Central Harlem. Their goal is to recreate “extended family and dinner party scenarios,” said Dr Yannai Kashtan. Candidate for Earth System Science at Stanford University and member of the research team.
To limit their exposure, team members camped on balconies with sweeping views of upper Manhattan and entered and exited while holding their breath to check levels.
In about 40 minutes, nitrogen dioxide levels exceeded 200 ppb in the living room, 300 ppb in the bedroom, and 400 ppb in the kitchen, doubling, tripling, and quadrupling the thresholds set by the EPA. 1 hour exposure. After turning on the stove, his benzene concentration also tripled.
This stove had a hood. “But feel this,” Kashtan said, placing his hand on the stream of hot air that blew out the edge of the hood instead of venting out into the open. That means the bonnet “doesn’t do much” for bad air, he says.
The researchers spent a full day testing eight apartment buildings in New York City. That included a house in Brooklyn, where the researchers were puzzled by the plastic-sealed windows that characterize New York. Nina Domingo, who lives in a ground-floor room with her two housemates, said this was for insulation, she said. But that also meant poor ventilation, which was alarming given that the kitchen didn’t even have a hood venting to the outside.
In the area immediately adjacent to the kitchen, nitrogen dioxide concentrations rose rapidly to approximately 2.5 times the EPA threshold.
The team’s results, though preliminary, are consistent with a body of scientific research linking gas stove emissions to harmful pollution that impacts both climate change and public health. Previous research has also shown that stoves can leak natural gas (primarily methane, a powerful greenhouse gas), so exhaust gases continue to be emitted even when the stove is turned off.
Domingo, who works in technology, said he was aware of concerns about contamination from stoves, and that his previous apartment had a particularly efficient design of induction stoves. But when she decided to upgrade to a larger house last summer, competition for apartments was so fierce that she “didn’t have a choice,” she said.
Change may be coming.
60 percent or more of U.S. households already use electricity for cooking, and the Biden administration plans to expand efficiency regulations on gas stoves, which will save Americans an estimated $100 million in energy savings, in addition to climate change and health benefits. is proposing. Several cities, mostly in blue states, have passed or are considering a ban on new gas connections, effectively requiring electric cooking and heating for new construction, while some red states are doing so. Trying to get ahead of the ban.
A Stanford University team is already testing the stove in cities including San Francisco. Denver; Houston. And Melbourne, Australia is next heading to Washington. It will also be tested in Europe and Asia.
What do they expect in Asian cities? In addition, smaller living spaces can lead to higher concentrations of contaminants and increased exposure. It’s a global problem, they said. Just how serious the problem is, they’re trying to figure out.
