Indoor pollution from an incredibly common appliance sends 4,000 people to an early grave each year, experts warn READ MORE: Top paediatricians call for ban on 'invisible killer' home appliance By John Ely Deputy Health Editor For Mailonline Published: 12:17 EDT, 28 October 2024 | Updated: 12:23 EDT, 28 October 2024 e-mail View comments Pollution from using gas stove indoors kills nearly 4,000 Brits each year, a Spanish study suggests. Gas cookers have been known to produce levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2,) a gas potentially harmful to humans, for years. Now researchers from the University Jaume I have calculated indoor pollution from cooking with gas results in almost 40,000 premature deaths in Europe.
Britain accounts for 3,928 of this total, and alongside Italy , Poland , Romania and France are the worst hit countries in terms of these early deaths, The researchers said indoor pollution from gas stoves was particularly bad in homes with poor ventilation and during lengthy cooks. However, across the study, hazardous NO2 levels in breach of World Health Organization guidelines were found across the average home of 14 European nations, including Britain. Researchers also estimated exposure to pollutants emitted from gas cooking contributes to almost 370,000 cases of childhood asthma across the continent.
The authors also warned their findings could be an underestimate as there was a lack of data on how exposure to some of the other substances emitted by gas cookers could harm.