This broad analysis linked below, published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, covered cooking fuels and asthma in nearly 50 countries. The authors wouldn’t seem to have any particular axe to grind (check the “Funding” statement). It included over 500,000 kids and determined in-home open fire wood burning stoves did seem to increase asthma prevalence, but that natural gas cooking did not.
Excerpts (other than headers, any emphases are mine):
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Findings: Data were collected between 1999 and 2004. 512,707 primary and secondary school children from 108 centres in 47 countries were included in the analysis. The use of an open fire for cooking was associated with an increased risk of symptoms of asthma and reported asthma in both children aged 6-7 years (odds ratio [OR] for wheeze in the past year, 1·78, 95% CI 1·51-2·10) and those aged 13-14 years (OR 1·20, 95% CI 1·06-1·37). In the final multivariate analyses, ORs for wheeze in the past year and the use of solely an open fire for cooking were 2·17 (95% CI 1·64-2·87) for children aged 6-7 years and 1·35 (1·11-1·64) for children aged 13-14 years. Odds ratios for wheeze in the past year and the use of open fire in combination with other fuels for cooking were 1·51 (1·25-1·81 for children aged 6-7 years and 1·35 (1·15-1·58) for those aged 13-14 years. In both age groups, we detected no evidence of an association between the use of gas as a cooking fuel and either asthma symptoms or asthma diagnosis.
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Interpretation: The use of open fires for cooking is associated with an increased risk of symptoms of asthma and of asthma diagnosis in children. Because a large percentage of the world population uses open fires for cooking, this method of cooking might be an important modifiable risk factor if the association is proven to be causal.
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Funding: BUPA Foundation, the Auckland Medical Research Foundation, the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand, the Child Health Research Foundation, the Hawke’s Bay Medical Research Foundation, the Waikato Medical Research Foundation, Glaxo Wellcome New Zealand, the NZ Lottery Board, Astra Zeneca New Zealand, Hong Kong Research Grant Council, Glaxo Wellcome International Medical Affairs.
One question I’d ask of any media types citing to the original study[1] as support for prohibiting gas stoves[2] is, did you notice that the authors started with the a priori assumption that “gas stove use for cooking is associated with an increased risk of current asthma”, and then did their meta-analysis only to try to quantify “how much”?
Given other peer-reviewed studies in well-respected journals found no effect, I’d question the foundational assumption here, especially given there seems no recognition that a conflict in the peer-reviewed literature exists in this regard. And in particular, without noting that the foundational assumption is supported by a meta-analysis that specifically excluded studies of childhood asthma in populations with low incidence of gas stove use - what, no comparator needed?
[1] Which @shrinkwrap found and linked, above.
[2] Disclaimer - I’ve had electric ranges and gas ranges, and prefer gas.
