Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: New study that links cooking with natural gas to nearly 12 percent of childhood asthma cases has sparked debate about the health risks of kitchen stoves and calls in the United States (US) for stepped-up regulation.
The authors of the research study said their findings suggested that about 650,000 US children would not have developed asthma if their homes had induction or electric stovetops, comparing the impact on health to that of second-hand smoke.
But an expert in the study questioned its findings and warned that gas remains far healthier than cooking with wood, coal, and charcoal, which are estimated to cause 3.2 million deaths each year from household air pollution, overwhelmingly in developing countries.
The peer-reviewed US study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health last month.
Health risk of developing asthma in homes
The study is based on calculating the health risk of developing asthma in homes with a gas stove from a 2013 review of 41 previous research studies.
Combining that calculation with US census data, the study linked 12.7 percent of US childhood asthma cases to gas cooking.
The same calculation was earlier used in 2018 research that attributed 12.3% of childhood asthma cases in Australia to gas stove cooking.
A report released on Monday used the same calculation to link 12% of childhood asthma to gas cooking in the European Union.
The report, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, was released by the European Public Health Alliance and the energy efficiency group CLASP.
