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Breathe Better at Home

Your Stove Might Be Polluting Your Air. Learn how gas stoves affect your health and what you can do about it.

The content below was generated and vetted by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), an organization of physicians and health professionals that advocates for climate solutions. To directly browse through their resources, please visit their website. 

Did You Know?

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Polluting Particles

Gas stoves release nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and even benzene—a known carcinogen. These pollutants can have a lasting effect on the human body. 

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Asthma in Children

Children in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to have asthma symptoms. 

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Reduce Exposure

Proper ventilation and switching to electric or induction can significantly reduce your exposure to polluting particles. 

What You Can Do

To reduce the risk of exposure to pollutants when cooking with gas, the most important thing to do is ventilate your space. If possible, use electric alternatives to gas cooking. For a full list of recommendations, scroll to the checklist below. 

  • Ventilate: Open a window and use your exhaust fan.  
  • Cook on Back Burners:  So your exhaust hoods can more effectively capture pollutants.
  • Get a Carbon Monoxide Detector: It's essential for gas appliances.
  • Switch to Electric Induction: Cleaner and safer for your family. Learn more about induction. 

PSR's Healthy Cooking Checklist

Consider these actions when cooking to reduce the risk of being exposed to pollutants. 

  1. Open a window and make sure there is no major air pollution event like a wildfire that can introduce polluted air inside.
  2. Use an exhaust hood - if available, use your stove’s exhaust hood in addition to opening a window. Some exhaust hood’s may not ventilate to the outside, and will simply send the air over your head to the rest of the kitchen. This isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly better than no air circulation at all.
  3. Cook on the back burners - This goes hand-in-hand with using your exhaust hood if one is available. When we cook on the front burners, the pollutants produced by the stove are much less likely to get caught by the exhaust hood and will remain in your kitchen near you. Cooking on the back burners dramatically increases the rate at which the pollutants are drawn up by the exhaust hood and ventilated away from you.
  4. Install and maintain a carbon monoxide detector -  You may already have a carbon monoxide (CO) detector in your home, but most models only go off when CO levels are high enough to cause fatal CO poisoning. We recommend installing and maintaining a CO detector that will sound the alarm at lower levels to encourage ventilation earlier. Plug-in versions typically cost less than $50, and are widely available.
  5. Use electric appliances like a toaster oven - Reducing the amount of times the gas appliance is used is crucial to reducing your and your family’s risk, so try to use electric appliances for cooking functions that you may normally use a stove or oven for. Toaster ovens, kettles, and air fryers are all great options to reduce the amount of fossil fuel pollution in your kitchen.
  6. Try an induction stove - Induction stoves are faster, more efficient, safer, and don’t emit harmful pollutants from burning gas. PG&E has a free loaner program that will let you borrow a plug-in induction cooktop for two-weeks.
  7. Switch to an electric Induction stove - If possible and when you’re ready to switch, you can replace your entire stove with an induction stove. Learn more about why professional chefs prefer induction.