Home sweet home, sure. But most of us are not at all aware of the risks we run due to the smog hidden within the home. In 2019, a study by the National Association for the Protection of Renewable Energies underlined that it is in our homes and not outside that we are actually exposed to 95% of the pollutants that end up in our lungs. In the 1970s and 1980s, the World Health Organization even classified a specific indoor air pollution disease, sick building syndrome or sick building syndromewhich would affect one in five buildings in the West, he says Cajetan Settimo president of SIIAq (Italian indoor air quality society).
Now a new study shows that cooking with gas exceeds air pollution limits every week. The report by the non-profit energy efficiency group CLASP and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) with technical support from the Applied Scientific Research Organization (TNO), indicates that cooking with gas in a common kitchen and without mechanical ventilation causes household nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution that exceeds the limit of World Health Organization air quality guidelines and European outdoor air pollution standards several times a year . (The text continues below)
For four simulated the gas cooking of typical European dishes for a period of seven days using common cooking techniques in common kitchen conditions, without using extractor hoods to the outside. In all simulations where mechanical ventilation was not used, the EU outdoor limit value of 200 g/m3 NO2 was exceeded indoors for more than the permitted 18 hours per year. The size of the kitchen is a factor and ventilation reduces pollution but hoods are often ineffective, insufficient or underused, as reported by the study.
People spend most of their time at home. Few people are aware of the harmful risks involved in gas cookers,” he comments Christine Egan Clasp CEO — Preparing dinner can expose you to as many pollutants as secondhand smoke. Gas appliances should carry health warning labels like cigarette packets. European officials should consider these health risks. To confirm these modeled results, starting early 2023 CLASP will collect real-time air quality data in 280 kitchens across Europe .
January 9, 2023 | 09:21
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