Posted on 06/25/2004 6:46:31 AM PDT by CSM
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young children who live in homes with gas cooking stoves may be at increased risk for respiratory illnesses, research from Hong Kong suggests.
"Gas cooking can be a significant source of indoor air pollution," Dr. T. W. Wong of the Chinese University of Hong Kong told Reuters Health.
Wong explained that the burning of cooking gas may generate nitrogen dioxide. Smokey cooking fumes, particularly from deep frying, may also contribute to indoor air pollution, the investigator said. Both types of indoor air pollution may increase the likelihood of respiratory diseases, especially among the very young and very old, according to Wong.
"Ventilation of the kitchen is important to prevent the accumulation of these air pollutants in our homes," Wong said.
The researchers studied 426 children aged 6 or younger who lived in two middle-class Hong Kong housing complexes. All of the apartments had gas stoves. One complex, however, was near an industrial center and other sources of air pollution, while the other was in an area with less air pollution.
Respiratory illnesses were almost three times as common among children living in the high-pollution area as in the low-pollution area, the researchers found.
Among children who lived in the more polluted area, exposure to cooking gas was not significantly related to the risk of respiratory illness.
But among children who lived in the less polluted area, gas cooking was associated with an increased risk, the study found. The more meals that were cooked on a gas stove, the greater was a child's risk of developing a respiratory illness, such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis or pneumonia.
The results of the study appear in the July issue of the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Wong's team speculates that gas cooking may not have much of an effect on respiratory illnesses among children living in areas with high levels of outdoor air pollution because they are already exposed to plenty of nitrogen dioxide in the air. In less polluted areas, however, nitrogen dioxide released from gas stoves may have more of an impact because children living in these areas do not inhale as many pollutants in their neighborhoods, according to the report.
"The obvious next step would be to conduct measurements of these air pollutants and quantify the relation between their concentrations and ill health," Wong added.
SOURCE: Archives of Disease in Childhood, July 2004.
Time to ban cooking all together! Its for the chilrun, don't ya know!
[/sarcasm]
Good Grief.............
Until we moved last year I spent my entire life living with gas cooking.....and never suffered any respiratory illness, nor did my brother.....same for my husband and his sisters and their kids. They lived in a less polluted and more rural area and I grew in NYC.
I wish to goodness they would spend as much time, energy, and money on finding cures for these things instead of just looking for more and more things to blame it on.
There is only one fact in life - none of us are going to get out of it alive.
Breathing is a hazzard to your health.
Before I read this thoroughly, I was thinking "well, everyone in my wife's neighborhood in Bangkok cooks with gas, and on little portable stoves with no ventilation." Now, come to find out, the story is about Hong Kong.
Have any of you ever been inside a typical Hong Kong apartment? They are about the size of a large American bathroom. My wife's aunt has a two bedroom place there. One bedroom is the size of the bed, literally. You crawl in through the door. The master bedroom has about six square feet to stand up in. The rest of the apartment is about the size of the two bedrooms put together. There are no ventilation fans, although sometimes the cooking is done on or next to the balcony, where there is one.
A study based on conditions in HK has no bearing on the situation in the US.
Paid for by the Chinese Electric Company.
. . . may discourage cooking with gas (no doubt the intention here); but also tells us if only by a stretch, that pollution makes us stronger. . .kind of a homeopathic gift from our environment - the old peck of dirt. . .
That said, I am not buying it; and yes; I am cooking with gas.
"Dr. T. W. Wong of the Chinese University of Hong Kong "
Maybe what he wants is a return to charcoal in enclosed spaces. eventually they will find out,
TWO WONGS WONT MAKE IT RIGHT.
ai't that the truth..in the early 90's. I had a conference in HK..wife came, natch..city is breathtaking....we were at the Peninsula, overlooking the harbor..just spectacular..everything first rate...third day or so, I have a morning free.. wife wants to go jewelry shopping..she has the name of the fabulous place..where, how, from whom, she got, it..I don't know...so, we go to doorman at the hotel, show him the name and address or the compnay, he whistles a car over..probably his brother or cousin..he tells us what it will cost, the driver will take us there, and wait for us, as long as it takes..seems prudent..when in Rome, etc...we get there, nice trip, driver points out all the sights...the shop is beautiful..hardly crowded first thing in the morning..we're welcomed...staff is superb, the salesgirls are beautifully dressed....we're offered tea or coffee...hard to refuse, comes served in an exqusite silver set, porcelian cups...wife is in her glory..I'm reading the IHT..after an hour, purchases concluded.. wife asks to use the ladies room...clerk shows her...she returns 30 seconds later.."weird" look on her face...picks up the packages, I get the AMEX receipts, and she kind of fast walks out the door...in the car, she tells me the "john" was just a hole in the floor...I started laughing..then she hit me...
Another intersting fact. You will die within one year of your last birthday.
As Hank Hill would say, "Butane's a bastard gas."
That will be next, CSM!
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