LOS ANGELES — Cooking with gas-fired stoves can cause unsafe levels of toxins to accumulate inside homes, exposing people to roughly the same cancer risk as breathing secondhand cigarette smoke, according to a new study.
Researchers from Stanford University and nonprofit PSE Healthy Energy tested gas and propane stoves in 87 homes across California and Colorado and found that every appliance produced a detectable amount of cancer-causing benzene — a chemical with no safe level of exposure.
It only took 45 minutes for a single burner on high, or an oven set to 350 degrees, to boost benzene levels above well-established health base lines, according to the study, which was published last week in Environmental Science & Technology. In some cases, benzene levels exceeded concentrations found in secondhand tobacco smoke.
