A paper published last month attributing 12.7% of childhood asthma cases to gas stoves generated a lot of heat, especially after U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said banning these common household stoves was being considered.
But the issue, which is not new to Jonathan Samet, MD, MS, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health and a national expert on respiratory health and inhaled pollutants, may have ignited some undue alarm.
“Certainly people know that there are sources of air pollution within homes,” Samet said, adding that cigarette smoking in homes was one of the worst indoor pollution sources identified, which, with education, has improved. “In terms of indoor air pollution, gas stoves are not as problematic as cigarette smoke was, but this is a somewhat misleading comparison.”
Samet launched a large study in the mid-1980s comparing respiratory illness rates in infants in homes with gas stoves with those without. The study found no statistical difference in illness rates or duration. He offers more perspective on the issue in the Q&A.