The phrase ‘cooking with gas’ has long had positive connotations in western culture. But the reality is that cooking with gas poses dangers to individuals and to the planet.
For individuals, the hazards range from relatively minor to deadly. The burning of gas produces carbon monoxide, which is poisonous to humans, and that’s why adequate ventilation is vital when gas appliances are being used.
Many Australians will remember the tragic case of Vanessa Robinson and her two children Chase and Tyler in 2010. Chase and Tyler died of carbon monoxide poisoning while asleep in their South Australian house. Vanessa was also overcome by the fumes but survived. The cause was identified as a faulty gas heater.
Such tragedies are, of course, extremely rare, but they are a reminder of the potential dangers when cooking with gas. More common outcomes of carbon monoxide exposure are headaches and dizziness, and sufferers are often unaware that it is the gas causing such symptoms.
Asthma has also been linked to the use of gas appliances. One of the main components of the gas we burn is methane. The primary purpose is to produce heat, but this process leads to the release of both nitrogen and oxygen in gas form, and the two can combine to form nitrous oxide, which has been linked to a number of health problems, including asthma.
Associate Professor Donna Green, chief investigator of the Digital Grid Futures Institute at UNSW Sydney, says: “NO2 is a problem because it can cause a range of very serious health problems, including asthma.”
Cooking with gas has much broader consequences and the scourge of climate change has brought the use of gas appliances in the home into sharp focus.
The gas we use in our stoves and heaters is, of course, a fossil fuel, and the science is now very clear about the consequences for the planet of burning fossil fuels. That’s why the announcement of any new coal or gas mining projects are met with the strong protests. Natural gas is also far harder to ‘decarbonise’ than electricity.
A prevailing narrative over the years has been that gas stoves are better than electric because they provide more control.
However, modern cooktops have resolved that issue, using electricity to generate a magnetic field, heat faster, control temperatures more precisely and use less energy than other cooktops.
Ditching your gas cooktop and heater for safer, more environmentally alternatives might be too expensive for many, so don’t panic.
For the sake of our planet’s future, though, consider an alternative when you next decide to upgrade or replace an existing gas appliance.
And for the sake of your own health, and anyone you share a house with, ensure there’s adequate ventilation when using a gas stove or heater – and make sure they’re regularly checked by a qualified plumber.
That way, the phrase ‘cooking with gas’ will retain its positive connotations for longer.
Do you have gas appliances in your home? Are you planning on converting to electricity when they need replacing? Why not share your thoughts in the comments section below?
Also read: Tips and tricks when converting from gas to an induction cooktop
One thing that became very obvious about the dangers of articles such as this is, Don’t have them written by people who don’t know basic science. There are a succession of errors in this narrative.
Carbon monoxide is usually only the product of combustion when the burning is being done in confined spaces with inadequate ventilation. When there is adequate ventilation, any CO produced will also burn off back to produce CO2. (It is however, by medical observation, a fairly pleasant way to die.)
Any gas hot water heater is by Legislation required to be vented to the outside of the dwelling. So in real terms, this is not a danger to any building that has been built according to appropriate standards and the heater would’ve been installed by a Licensed plumber.
Methane is a completely natural gas and can be produced when and where needed by natural processes. It is not a fossil fuel. Every waste water treatment plant around the world generates methane from their solids digestion process. It is also a natural output from most landfill rubbish deposits.
However, it is also present in vast quantities allied with coal seams and can be harvested easily and safely from those underground “bubbles’ and piped to our homes.
When burnt it produces water and carbon dioxide. (H2O and CO2) Both of these are natural gases and cause no harm to the individual or the environment. Unless there are faults within the appliance, there should be negligible amounts of oxides of Nitrogen. These oxides may irritate the airways of people who have some breathing conditions. Yes, they may aggravate asthma, but if the kitchen or heated living areas are correctly ventilated, they should have little to no adverse effect on the health of most people.
Here we are relating to an Australian readership and it must be viewed from that perspective. Additional water vapour here will have no adverse effect on either the climate or the weather (especially when in the quantities produced by domestic use). As can be shown by using information from the CSIRO and calculated by more than one environmental and physical scientist, the flora contained in our east coast National Parks, nature and forestry reserves and Native Title Lands more than absorbs all of the CO2 produced by human activity in this country. This is before we include the CO2 absorption capacity of the limestone rocks and soils around the country and then there’s the photosynthetic processes from the phytoplankton in our surrounding seas and oceans.
The science is very clear in that there is much that we do not understand about any relationship between the use of “fossil” fuels and climate change. This has been driven by political pressures to suit a specific agenda. There is not a clear confirmed connection. It is a theory that keeps failing to meet the dire predictions.
The push for every one using gas for cooking to convert to the induction stove ignores the fact that this would be an enormous financial impost on many home owners which includes, in many cases replacing most of their hob top cooking pots and pans.
The additional load in the marginal capacity electricity Grid could be enough to cause wide spread blackouts as that load has not been factored into either the immediate generating (and storage) or future capacity.
Please be wary of the mis and disinformation from articles such as this. It is an opinion piece and not a science article.