About 47 million homes use natural gas or propane-burning cooktops and ovens. Stanford researchers found that cooking with gas stoves can raise indoor levels of the carcinogen benzene above those found in secondhand smoke.

Is this one of those things we will look back at from the future and say: “I can’t believe that we did that?” like leaded fuel?

  • someguy3English
    2·
    2 years ago

    Combustion byproducts (and gas leaks) in the house are really, really bad for your health. Should be at the top of your list health wise.

    • Bo7aEnglish
      1·
      2 years ago

      Thanks I will raise the priority a bit.

      It still likely means another year with it, but it is now on the list with the propane water heater (tried to replace this over the weekend but the electric unit I was sold was damaged and the store was closed for St. Jean Baptiste day.), and the digging of a well so I can stop buying bottled water for cooking and drinking - and pumping from the creek for washing.

      • someguy3English
        2·
        2 years ago

        Assuming it’s properly set up a gas water heater and gas furnace are not bad because they have proper ventilation. But a gas stove is much more open, and many people don’t run the exhaust fan because it’s too loud. If you’re stuck with it make sure you run the exhaust fan on high and I would even open the windows.

        • Bo7aEnglish
          1·
          2 years ago

          The water heater is the worst offender in our house. It was never intended to be fulltime use. But I am getting rid of it this weekend. The stove on the other hand will be at least a year.

          Our living situation is very different than most though. This wasn’t a choice. It took hydro 11 months to bring us power so we had no choice but to cut corners to make life somewhat livable in the absence of grid power or a budget for whole-house solar.

      • TroyOPMEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        My grandparents died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to a propane stove (they were using it in their porch as a canning stove, to make pickles – carbon monoxide flooded the house). I’ve assuming you, at a minimum, have a carbon monoxide detector? Everything else coming from the stove kills you slowly.

        • Bo7aEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          Thanks. Sorry to hear about your grandparents. That is terrible.

          Ours is a proper stove installed by a gasfitter, not a little countertop camp stove. And we do have multiple CO meters around the house. The camping water heater is a bigger problem. But I am replacing that this weekend.

          • TroyOPMEnglish
            2·
            2 years ago

            It was more than two decades ago now. I try to see some black humour in it now. How many people do you know who’ve died in a “tragic pickling accident”?

            Glad that you’re taking precautions. Learning from other people’s mistakes is a lot safer than learning from your own.