Gas Stoves Emit More of the Carcinogen Benzene Than Expected
Gas Stoves Emit More of the Carcinogen Benzene Than Expected
Stanford University researchers found high levels of the carcinogen benzene in California and Colorado homes that used gas stoves
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We got a new gas stove before all this news came out. We've been keeping the kitchen window open every time we cook, but honestly, I'm not sure if that's going to cut it. Crap.
How about a draft hood vented outside?
Yeah, we've been considering between that and switching to an induction/electric stove. It's a pretty big chunk of change either way, and the whole sunk cost fallacy mindset just won't go away haha
I switched from gas to induction last year and while it was pricey it has been so worth it. We cook way more and are more open to trying new things because it's so easy to use and the air fryer oven is amazing.
That's good to hear. Did you have to replace your cookware?
Agreed about the air fryer. I have one and use it way more than I imagined.
We had a couple of pots that weren't magnetic, but already had enough without them so no big deal. Our's has some precision cooking thing that requires expensive cookware, but I $ont trust that stuff anyway so we never got them.
The biggest direct benefit of the induction for us was that the house didn't get nearly as hot or as smelly as with the gas stove.
Gotcha. Tell me more about how your house doesn't get as smelly with an induction cooktop.
Having an open flame burning and releasing fumes is gonna generate smells, even with a good vent (to be fair, ours is not a good vent). Induction has nothing like that. You put your pan/pot down, you hear a low humming noise, and it just kinda magically hears up. The only smells are from the food.
I wish it was a low humming noise. The noise from those things goes straight through my brain like the old CRT TVs, but 100 times louder.
I have to stick to a standard electric range until they build in sound dampening or something.
Do you find it cooks as evenly as gas? I've used induction in the past but found that gas cooks more evenly. Had I known about the high benzene emissions when I purchased a range I likely would have bought induction. Really like the high and even heat on gas though.
I'd say it cooks more evenly for us, but we were more amateur when we had the gas stove. With induction, the pan itself is hearing up, so if it's the same size as the "burner" or smaller, the whole bottom heats up. With gas, the flame would adjust hear immediately, but was still just spraying heat and felt more random, depending on pan size.
Which brand did you get? I am currently shopping for one.
GE Profile
I think this is the standard recommendation, but you actually need to make sure it's designed and installed right. You need a proper air exchange, and to make sure it's sized properly to the intake you need and so on. A lot of the hoods you see are so poorly installed that you might as well wave your hands at the stove for all the good it does.
Why not an induction cooktop? Are they really that hard to install in an American home? I’m guessing you’re in America because there’s no excuse for still using gas anywhere else.
Yep, I’m in the US. It’s really easy to switch to induction or electric, but gas is still cheap and already installed in my house. Plus, we just spent a lot of money on a new gas range before finding out about the dangers, so it would be expensive to replace it again so soon. Trying to see if there’s anything I can do about it in the meantime.
Trust me, there’s plenty of apartments in Poland (where gas was predominant not more than 15 years ago) where there is a perfectly operational gas installation in the walls, but instead of a meter there’s just two plugs on the pipes. You still get an inspection done on it, but there’s only one point they measure and the risk of a gas leak is pretty much not existent, since those plugs are rated to hundreds times the line pressure.
I know it’s difficult to part with that money now and have nothing from it, so use the stove as you would, just keep in mind that gas is obsolete and dangerous. Setting things on fire in an enclosed space because you need heat sounds so 18th century.