Indoor Air Pollution

Indoor air pollution that originates in your own house may be even more important than outdoor air pollution. Starting about ten years ago, evidence emerged that natural gas appliances, in particular stoves, are a much bigger source of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and even PM2.5 than previously appreciated. That evidence is now very strong. This is not good news for those of you that are stuck with a natural gas stove.

But there are some things you can do to cut down on the pollution that contaminates your house. Use ventilation whenever you cook, and use the back burners. And now that we are stuck indoors much more than before, try and use a crock pot for cooking as much as possible.

Read this Vox article on how gas stoves can generate unsafe levels of indoor air pollution – an accumulating body of research suggests gas stoves are a health risk.

We also do most of our breathing inside. So it’s a little odd that we don’t think more about indoor air quality. Outdoor air is the subject of titanic legal and regulatory battles going back decades. The six common air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act — ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) — have fallen an average of 74 percent since the Act was passed in 1970.

And it’s a good thing, because an inexorably growing pile of research suggests that those pollutants are even more harmful to humans, at lower exposures, than previously believed. . .

Four research and advocacy groups — the Rocky Mountain Institute, Mothers Out Front, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Sierra Club — have released a new literature review, assessing two decades worth of peer-reviewed studies. They find that “gas stoves may be exposing tens of millions of people to levels of air pollution in their homes that would be illegal outdoors under national air quality standards.

Content from Vox – read more here.