Half a dozen times, the monitor showed the amount of tiny PM2.5 particles in our kitchen soared to the same levels as the toxic air people were breathing in Sydney during the Black Summer bushfires. | perkinsmiki
found cooking with gas in Australia increases the burden of asthma by about 12 per cent, or equivalent to the effects of having a smoker in the home.
The levels of nitrogen dioxide in my house were not spectacularly high, although there was one evening when it went above the national air quality standard . We may have forgotten to turn the rangehood extractor fan on – research shows extractor fans are often either not present or not used.It was a different story for the levels of PM2.5 particles. During the Black Summer bushfire smoke crisis, the level of PM2.5 in Sydney.
It’s impossible to know exactly what caused this concentration of PM2.5, he says. These tiny particles could be from smoke, accumulated oil or other materials on the metal grate that holds the pots or the gas elements.“Ultimately, it’s coming from a burning reaction, so if you were not burning anything it would not be there. If you weren’t using combustion, there are simply not as many opportunities for particles or nitrogen to be created,” says Baxter.
“There’s very limited research comparing gas cooking and induction cooktops and that’s a problem because there’s a very strong gas lobby encouraging us to use gas for cooking,” says Green. “In many people’s minds induction is fancy and expensive, but [in the market] that’s really changed.” While gas heaters and, to a lesser extent, gas cooktops are manufactured to certain standards, there is no monitoring after they are sold. It’s up to the consumer to get their heater maintained and cooktops should probably be monitored as well, “but let’s be honest, no one does it,” says Barnes.Choice is phasing out reviews of gas cooktops, both because consumers seem less interested in increasingly expensive gas and are becoming more aware of its potential health impacts.