Cooking on Gas vs Electric

Cooking on gas is worse for the air quality than electric cooking

In kitchens where gas is used, the air quality is much lower than where electric cooking is used. This is evident from a European study by TNO. In daily practice, it has been measured how much nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM2.5) are released when cooking with gas compared to electric cooking.

For the study, 250 participants in seven countries all cooked at home at least three out of seven days. About 80 percent cooked on gas and 20 electric. It showed that a “significantly higher concentration” of nitrogen dioxide was found in the kitchens of households cooking with gas compared to cooking with electricity.

A quarter of Dutch households cooking with gas exceeded the recommended NO2 guideline of the World Health Organization (WHO) per hour. “And we did not see any exceedances in households that cooked electrically,” says Piet Jacobs, researcher at TNO. “The values ​​even exceeded the range of our measuring equipment.”

Asthma

According to TNO, cooking on gas increases the risk of asthma in children by 20 percent. People who already have asthma may also experience respiratory complaints more often.

However, significantly high levels of particulate matter were measured in both people who cooked electrically and on gas. This partly has to do with which dish is prepared, such as frying meat, which is at the expense of air quality.

TNO advises people who cook, regardless of how, to turn on the extractor hood while cooking. Even when an egg is boiled. “If you put a pan of water on, nitrogen dioxide and ultrafine dust are also released and they must be removed immediately. Especially in an open kitchen, this spreads into the living room.”

It was previously known that cooking on gas is worse for your health, but now practical research has been conducted for the first time. For this purpose, a box with sensors was placed in people’s homes that measured the air.

The study took into account external factors that could influence the measured values. For example, there was no smoking in the house and the house was not near a busy main road or an industrial complex, which could make the air quality worse.