Introduction
We all know that the kitchen is the heart of the home, but did you know that it could also be a source of dangerous pollutants? According to a recent report, the silent danger lurking in your kitchen could be polluting your home. From the air we breathe to the food we eat, the kitchen is a potential source of hazardous chemicals and particles that can have a negative impact on our health. In this article, we’ll explore the potential dangers of kitchen pollutants and what you can do to reduce your exposure.
This Silent Danger in Your Kitchen Could Be Polluting Your Home, Says Report
A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed that a silent danger in your kitchen could be polluting your home. The report found that kitchen exhaust fans, which are designed to remove smoke, grease, and odors from the kitchen, can actually be releasing pollutants into the air.
The report found that kitchen exhaust fans can release pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde into the air. These pollutants can cause a variety of health problems, including respiratory issues, headaches, and eye irritation. The report also found that the pollutants can accumulate in the home, leading to long-term health risks.
The EPA recommends that homeowners take steps to reduce the amount of pollutants released from kitchen exhaust fans. This includes regularly cleaning the fan and replacing the filter, as well as ensuring that the fan is properly vented to the outside. Additionally, the EPA recommends that homeowners use an exhaust fan that is certified by the Home Ventilating Institute (HVI).
The EPA’s report is a reminder that kitchen exhaust fans can be a source of indoor air pollution. Taking steps to reduce the amount of pollutants released from kitchen exhaust fans can help protect your family’s health and keep your home safe.
As if we did not have sufficient to fret about with COVID-19 overwhelming hospitals in a minimum of 21 cities and inflicting “ungodly surges” in a minimum of one U.S. state, a startling new report suggests that there is one other invisible well being hazard lurking within the air. It could possibly have an effect on not solely your respiratory system but in addition your youngsters’s, and even worse, it is lurking in your very personal kitchen: Your fuel range.
For those who’ve received a pure gas-burning range or furnace at residence—and, let’s be clear, hundreds of thousands of People do—you would be spreading all kinds of horrible particles by means of the air, in keeping with an eye-opening article revealed by Quartz. Amongst them are nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which causes extreme respiratory points, notably in youngsters; carbon monoxide (CO2), an odorless fuel that may trigger dizziness and, on the proper ranges, even loss of life; formaldehyde, and particulate matter (PM), tiny particles within the air that may additionally wreak havoc in your respiratory system. These pollution are produced by the direct combustion of gas, which is clearly method worse for those who’re cooking with, say, charcoal, however exists with fuel cooking, as effectively.
Specialists agree that the NO2 ranges which may be current in American properties are essentially the most troubling. “There is no query this has been a uncared for situation,” T. Stephen Jones, a doctor and epidemiologist for the CDC, advised Quartz. “[We need to let] folks know what the dangers are—notably when they are often substantial, life-threatening dangers that may kill youngsters.” (Associated: The One Vitamin Medical doctors Are Urging Everybody to Take Proper Now.)
Although scientists have apparently been finding out the hazards of NO2 produced by gas-burning home equipment for years and even a long time—and the EPA has been sounding the alarm since 1986—the problem has come to gentle as soon as once more as People are confined indoors throughout COVID-19 lockdowns and are cooking greater than ever earlier than.
Earlier this 12 months, The Rocky Mountain Institute revealed a report that cites all the methods elevated ranges of NO2 may injury a toddler, together with affecting their IQ and studying skills, growing the chance of bronchial asthma, inflicting lung infections, irritating their airwaves, and inflicting them to wheeze. One other report, produced by the UCLA Division of Environmental Well being Sciences and commissioned by the Sierra Membership, discovered that merely cooking with each your stovetop and your oven on the similar time can increase NO2 to harmful ranges.
“Underneath a cooking situation the place the range and oven are used concurrently for an hour, acute exposures to NO2 from cooking with fuel home equipment exceed the degrees of nationwide and California-based ambient air high quality thresholds in additional than 90% of modeled emission situations,” the researchers concluded.
When one CEO at an air air pollution monitoring firm determined to check his own residence, he was startled by what he discovered. “Out of curiosity, I arrange some [pollution monitors] in my own residence. The information was loopy,” he advised Vox. “Through the hour I used to be cooking and baking [with a gas stove, NO2 concentrations spiked] near 200 ppb.” (For the file, the outside requirements for NO2, in accordance to the EPA, are 100 ppb.)
If that does not sound dangerous sufficient, new analysis signifies that NO2 mixed with COVID-19 creates an much more poisonous and deadly mixture. A examine carried out by researchers at Emory College and revealed final month within the Cell Press journal The Innovation discovered your danger of dying of the novel coronavirus goes up for those who’re additionally uncovered to NO2. The researchers arrived at their conclusion after finding out coronavirus mortality information in 3,122 U.S. counties. “We noticed important optimistic associations between NO2 ranges and each county-level COVID-19 case-fatality fee and county-level COVID-19 mortality fee, when controlling for covariates,” the report mentioned.
Based on an article titled “The False Promise of Pure Fuel,” which was written by three medical docs (one in every of whom was the previous director of the Nationwide Heart for Environmental Well being on the CDC) and revealed in The New England Journal of Medication earlier this 12 months, “new fuel home equipment needs to be faraway from the market.” Yikes.
Based on Quartz, regulatory motion could possibly be looming for makers of gas-powered home equipment, particularly in California. However for those who’ve received one at residence now, it could possibly be a great time to switch it with its electrical counterpart. And for extra on the insidious that could possibly be lurking in your kitchen, see this roundup of 30 Surprisingly Harmful Kitchen Gadgets.