News Desk

Study: gas cooking killing 40,000 Europeans per year

Gas cooking is killing 40,000 European people a year in Europe, a major new study has revealed, with an average of almost two years taken off their life in the EU and United Kingdom due to exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emitted during gas cooking.The countries with the highest burden were Italy, Poland, Romania, France and the UK.

This article was originally published in issue 48 of Passive House Plus magazine. Want immediate access to all back issues and exclusive extra content? Click here to subscribe for as little as €15, or click here to receive the next issue free of charge

The European Climate Foundation-funded study, which was conducted by academics at Jaume I University, has calculated the first map of indoor NO2 concentrations in households according to cooking appliance for the European population.

The annual concentrations inside the households of more than half of the countries exceeded the heath guideline for NO2 proposed by WHO in 2021.

Gas cooking appliances are a significant source of household air pollutants, including NO2, which is a harmful gas with known health effects.

Gas hobs are present in 33 per cent of European Union households and in 54 per cent of households in the UK. Presence of gas cooking at home and exposures to NO2 have been associated with childhood asthma, premature mortality and other health outcomes in scientific studies.

Other pollutants emitted during cooking with gas appliances were not considered in the study

Related items