Still using a gas stove? Warning: a new study points to an increased risk of leukemia…
Gas stoves are less and less common in France, and that’s good. Because in recent years, several scientific studies have highlighted the health risks of cooking with gas: the gas stoves dear to our grandmothers would promote, among other things, the development of cancers and respiratory diseases (asthma, in particular).
The latest study comes from Stanford University (in the United States). By carrying out several experiments in 87 houses located in Colorado and California, the American researchers discovered that a single burner positioned on “high heat” is enough to considerably increase the level of benzene in the air of the kitchen. Ditto when you turn on a gas oven set to 180°C: both the gas stove and the oven emit between 2.8 and 6.5 μg (micrograms) of benzene per minute…
Ventilation is not enough to clean the air in the kitchen
However, benzene (chemical formula C6H6) is a carcinogenic pollutant: being exposed to it regularly increases the risk of blood cancer in particular – acute myeloid leukemia, chronic lymphoid leukemia, acute myeloblastic and lymphoblastic leukemias… The French health authorities also claim that between 5% and 18% of leukemia cases in France are due to occupational exposure to benzene, described as “leukemogenic pollutant“.
When cooking with gas, is it enough to ventilate or turn on the hood to reduce the concentration of benzene in the air? Not sure, according to the researchers, who say that natural or artificial ventilation is not sufficient to bring down the atmospheric level of benzene. Worse: this carcinogenic pollutant could even spread in the house since scientists have found abnormally high levels of benzene in the bedrooms of some houses tested!
Maybe now is a good time to invest in an electric cooker or induction hob…
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