Some 2,000 people die prematurely in Spain each year due to contamination from gas cookers.

According to the research, in which the Universitat de València, the Universitat Jaume I de Castellóand el IDIAP J Gol participate, recommendations of the WHO are regularly breached in the average household in 14 European countries, although not in Spain, when environmental contamination with fumes from gas cookers during normal use.

The research team is formed by Ana Esplugues, Maria Estarlich and Ferran Ballester, lecturers at the Faculty of Nursing of the Universitat de València, and has been coordinated by the teachers of the Universitat Jaume I: Juan Maria Delgado-Saborit, first signatory, Àurea Cartanya, Paula Carrasco and Arne Risa Hole.

The total number of premature deaths is 39,959 in the EU and the UK, according to the research. The most affected countries are Italy, Poland, Romania, France and the UK, where most households cook with gas. Contamination is worse in poorly ventilated housings and during longer cooking sessions. Lives in Spain are shortened by an average of just over a year.

The research focused on a pollutant from gas cookers, nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), because it is well known to epidemiologists [1]. They combined measurements of real-world pollution inside and outside households across Europe taken by Dutch researchers last year with government data on environmental NO 2 concentrations to produce the first European map of likely NO 2 concentrations in homes using gas cookers. They applied these figures to establish NO 2 pollution risk rates to calculate the likely number of premature deaths in a year [2].

Lead author Dr Juana Maria Delgado-Saborit said: ‘In 1978, we first learned that NO 2 contamination is many times higher in gas cookers than in electric cookers. But only now can we put a figure on how many lives are being cut short. The scale of the problem is much worse than we thought, with our modelling suggesting that the average household in half of Europe exceeds WHO limits. Outdoor air pollution lays the groundwork for such non-compliance, but it is gas cookers that push households into the danger zone’.

Researchers say that the true human cost of pollution from gas cookstoves is likely to be significantly higher. The lack of data meant that some health conditions had to be excluded, as well as other harmful pollutants created by gas cookers, such as benzene, formaldehyde and suspension particulate matter. When most pollutants are included and a less precise method is used, the researchers found that gas cookers cause approximately 367,000 cases of preschool asthma and 726,000 cases in all age groups in Europe each year.

It is estimated that one third of European households cook with gas, households that generally have the highest levels of NO 2. These cookers emit methane, the potent greenhouse gas, even when they are switched off. Indoor air quality is important because Europeans spendalmost alltheir time indoors and buildings receive less fresh air as they become more airtight. Air pollution is considered the greatest environmental health risk

NASA states that there have been significant falls in NO 2 pollution in European cities in recent decades thanks to EU vehicle emission rules and vehicle technology. But background pollution is still the main contributor to the dangerous levels found by the study. Outdoor NO 2 pollution limits are about to become stricter.

The EU has no indoor air quality standards and its legislative tools to address the problem are scattered, argues the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), the largest group of civil society organisations in the European Union working on public health. EPHA is coordinating a campaign for clean cooking and has partnered with the University to advance knowledge on this topic. The EU is expected to propose updated standards for gas cookers by the end of this year and has been considering restrictions on pollution, including from NO 2. EPHA urges Brussels to rapidly phase out gas cookstoves through emission limits, along with financial incentives to switch to cleaner systems. It also sees a need for mandatory labelling to highlight pollution risks and public education campaigns on the risks of burning fuels indoors.

EPHA's director of global public health policy, Sara Bertucci, notes: ‘For too long it has been easy to dismiss the dangers of gas cookers. Like cigarettes, people did not think much about their impact on health and, like cigarettes, gas cookers are a small fire that fills our home with pollution.

The true impacts are likely to be greater than predicted in this study. Knowing that, governments should take the initiative to help us give up gas, just as they helped us give up cigarettes.

The study is available here. It will also be published at: www.uji.es/centres/fcs/base/arxiu/arxiu-noticies/2024/10/gascook and by EPHA at: https://epha.org/health-impacts-and-economic-costs-of-gas-cooking.

Notes.

[1] The paper noted some limitations. It was based on data from slightly different time periods. But the largely static population trends mean that the study's findings on premature death and asthma numbers are unlikely to change significantly from one year to the next. Indoor NO 2 rates in the real world are probably higher than estimated in the study, which used a national average for NO 2 environmental contamination, although cities are likely to suffer more from this gas. Despite this, the conclusions are probably conservative, the University notes, because additional health impacts were not included due to a lack of research, for example, linking NO 2 to hospital admissions. Only one previous study links NO 2 to premature death in America.

2] Scientists are certain that long-term exposure to NO 2 increases the risk of premature death. Even brief exposure is thought to increase the need for hospital treatment, although the evidence for this is less clear. The boys and girls are especially vulnerable to air pollution because they have weaker lungs and immune systems. Short-term exposure to NO 2 has been linked to increased asthma symptoms in children, an increased risk of missed school days due to asthma and increased wheezing.