I was cooking dinner for my kids when a radio report stopped me, mid-stir: ?Why gas stoves are bad for the climate?and you.? My ears perked up as the broadcaster specified that pollutants from gas stoves are especially harmful to kids. I looked down at the blue flames licking up the sides of the simmering pasta pot. Um, oops" 
As a parent, my capacity for things-you-really-should-worry-about feels entirely maxed out. Is it really so bad" I wondered. And why am I only hearing about this now" 
But it turns out multiple studies have found that gas stoves emit indoor air pollutants including methane gas, which is bad for the environment, and nitrogen oxide particles, which are bad for our lungs. In fact, these particles can decrease lung function and trigger or exacerbate asthma in kids, with symptoms such as wheezing, chest tightness and shortness of breath. Some gas stoves can leak methane continuously?even when the burners aren?t in use.  Anne Hicks, a paediatric lung doctor in Edmonton and the clinical lead at the Children’s Environmental Health Clinic at the University of Alberta, says that studies examining gas stoves and indoor air quality have actually been around since the 1990s.
It?s become the topic du jour though, partly because of a new study out of Stanford University in January 2022, which sparked media attention when researchers found that gas stoves emitted alarming levels of methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that?s bad for the envi...