Dangerous gas stoves: 40,000 Europeans die every year
Due to the pollution emitted by gas stoves, around 40,000 Europeans die annually, according to a study conducted in Great Britain and the European Union.
Gas stoves emit harmful gases that are linked to heart and lung diseases, and experts warn that the public is not sufficiently aware of the dangers. On average, the use of gas stoves shortens the life of people who use them by almost two years.
“The magnitude of the problem is much worse than we thought,” says research leader Juana Maria Delgado-Saborit, head of the investigative laboratory at the University of Giaume Prvi.
Experts have linked 36,031 premature deaths each year to gas cookers in the EU and nearly 4,000 more in Britain. They also state that their estimates are conservative because they only took into account the effects of nitrogen dioxide and not other gases, such as carbon monoxide and benzene.
“Back in 1978, we learned for the first time that nitrogen dioxide pollution is many times higher in kitchens where gas stoves are used compared to electric ones. “Only now are we able to express in terms of the number of lives that have been shortened”, emphasizes Delgado-Saborit.
One in three households in the EU uses gas, and in Britain 54 percent. The percentage is even higher in certain EU members, such as Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and Hungary – over 60 percent.
While burning natural gas, stoves emit harmful substances that lead to inflammatory processes in the airways.
Traffic exhaust gases
The report builds on last year’s study that measured air quality in homes that use gas. This allowed experts from the University of Giaume Prvi to make comparisons between exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution when cooking with gas and to map exposure to nitrogen dioxide.
“The only uncertainty is whether the risk of premature death from outdoor nitrogen dioxide poisoning from traffic exhaust can be applied to exposure to the same gas indoors through cooking,” said Stefen Loft, an air pollution expert at the University of Copenhagen who was not involved. in the study.
The EU has tightened the rules on outdoor air quality, but has not set standards for indoor air quality. The European Union of Public Health Institutions has already urged politicians to phase out gas stoves and to offer money to people to make it easier for them to switch to a healthier variant.
Source: RTS
Photo: Pixabay
Source: bizlife.rs
