GoKawiilWhen you turn on your gas stove to cook, it releases various air pollutants that may cause detrimental health effects. Javier Zayas Photography/Getty Images
The gas vs. electric debate continues when it comes to which stove is best — and safest — for your kitchen. Published in early July, a study by the MetroHealth System, a Northeast Ohio hospital and academic medical center, in collaboration with six community organizations found that participants with asthma reported respiratory improvement after they swapped their gas stoves for electric.
According to one of the researchers, Dr. Ashwini Sehgal, a professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University, in an article published by the nonprofit news organization The Conversation, this is the first study to explore whether switching from a gas to an electric stove can reduce asthma symptoms.
The study’s findings
The study included 85 adults and children in Northeast Ohio with “poorly controlled asthma,” which was based on their symptoms, use of emergency medication and activity limitations. Each participant logged this information not only for one to four weeks before their gas stoves were replaced at no cost with electric induction models but also two to three months after the replacement.
“We chose electric induction stoves because they heat up and cool down rapidly, and they are safer and easier to clean than electric coil stoves,” Sehgal wrote in his The Conversation article. While induction stoves are powered by electricity, they use an electromagnetic field to heat your cookware, whereas electric stoves rely on electricity to do so.
Before and after the stoves were replaced, air quality monitors were used to measure nitrogen dioxide levels for seven-day periods. Nitrogen dioxide, a gaseous air pollutant emitted by gas stoves, can harm the lungs.
After the switch from gas to electric, indoor nitrogen dioxide levels decreased by 70%, and according to Sehgal, participants’ asthma symptoms went from moderate to mild, demonstrating improvements “similar to — or even greater than — those reported in clinical trials of commonly used asthma medications.”
Missed days of work or school decreased by about 80%, while ER visits and hospitalizations decreased by 70%.
Aside from asthma improvement, 98% of participants reported feeling satisfied or very satisfied with their new electric induction stoves, whereas 41% felt the same about their previous gas models.
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