Gas Stoves May Decrease Lung Function in Teen Girls

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Cooking With Gas May Take Your Breath Away

Gas Stoves May Decrease Lung Function in Teen Girls

By Peggy Peck

WebMD Medical News

June 18, 2001 -- Though a gas stove is the preferred appliance among TV

chefs like Emeril, Bobby Flay, and all contestants on The Iron Chef, a team

of Italian researchers says gas stoves may pollute air in the home in a way

that leaves some teenage girls breathless.

In recent years there have been a series of articles that suggest gas stoves

may pose an environmental health risk, and the latest evidence comes in a

study of teens in Italy. Among girls whose blood tests suggested a high risk

for allergy, exposure to gas stoves decreased lung function by as much as

10%, according to the study, which is published in the June issue of the

British medical journal Thorax.

A team of researchers from Rome questioned 702 teens about exposure to gas

stoves and found that time in the kitchen had no ill effect on boys, but it

did affect girls, especially girls who had high levels of immunoglobulin E,

called IgE, in their blood. High levels of IgE usually indicate the presence

of allergies or asthma.

Norman H. Edelman, MD, dean of the school of medicine at State University of

New York, Stony Brook, tells WebMD that " there is a biologic plausibility "

to the observation that cooking with gas could affect lung function. When

gas is ignited it releases nitrogen dioxide, which other researchers have

associated with increased risk for respiratory infections.

Edelman, who is scientific and medical consultant to the American Lung

Association, says that IgE elevations may be an indicator for hypersensitive

airways and that could explain why people with elevated IgE are more likely

to be affected by gas stoves. But Edelman says, " I certainly wouldn't tell

anyone to get rid of a gas stove based on one study. "

Mark Eisner, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of

California, San Francisco, conducted his own study of gas stoves and asthma.

He surveyed more than 500 adults with asthma and found that cooking with gas

meant more trips to the emergency department or hospitalizations for asthma.

" The rationale here is that burning natural gas releases nitrogen dioxide

which is potentially irritating, " he says.

But Eisner says that his study and the study from Italy don't offer

conclusive evidence. He says, for example, that " gas stoves are more often

found in older houses in older, urban areas, so maybe the stove is a marker

for some other factor found in the house or the environment and that factor

triggers the problems. "

Eisner says too that it is difficult to explain why a gas stove would affect

girls but not boys.

The Italian researchers write that the gender difference may be caused by

either different exposure to the stove or " to different mechanical lung

properties. " They write that the lungs tend to have " a different pattern of

response to the environment in males and females. "

But Eisner also says that although the findings are interesting there are

more immediate environmental hazards to address. " Concentrate on established

risks like dust, cats, and tobacco smoke, " says Eisner.

Medically Reviewed

By Tonja Wynn Hampton, MD

© 2001 WebMD Corporation. All rights reserved.