A study shows gas stoves significantly increase indoor nitrogen dioxide exposure, often surpassing health guidelines and posing risks comparable to outdoor pollution.
For millions of people in the United States, remaining indoors does not provide the protection from harmful air pollution that they might expect, according to a new study led by Stanford University. Published on December 2 in PNAS Nexus, the research shows that gas and propane stoves release significant amounts of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant associated with asthma, obstructive pulmonary disease, preterm birth, diabetes, and lung cancer.
The analysis indicates that switching from gas to electric stoves can lower nitrogen dioxide exposure by more than 25 percent nationwide and by about 50 percent for households that use their stoves most frequently. Although earlier studies have examined nitrogen dioxide emissions from gas appliances, this is the first to evaluate both indoor and outdoor exposure across the entire country.
“We know that outdoor air pollution harms our health, but we assume our indoor air is safe.” said study senior author Rob Jackson, the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor in Earth System Science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “Our research shows that if you use a gas stove, you’re often breathing as much nitrogen dioxide pollution indoors from your stove as you are from all outdoor sources combined.”
Health Impacts and Regulatory Gaps
Every year, outdoor air pollution kills hundreds of thousands of Americans and causes millions of new cases of childhood asthma globally. While laws such as the U.S. Clean Air Act have reduced outdoor emissions, indoor pollution remains largely unregulated, even though its health risks can be comparable. This study represents the first broad national evaluation of nitrogen dioxide exposure from indoor and outdoor contributors, including vehicle emissions, electricity production, and household gas stoves.
A related 2024 investigation by the same research team found that gas stoves release nitrogen dioxide at levels considered unsafe, with concentrations that can remain elevated for several hours after burners and ovens have been shut off.
Additional research by some of the same authors has shown that gas stoves also emit dangerous levels of benzene, a carcinogen linked to leukemia and other blood-related cancers.
“It’s time to redirect our focus to what’s happening inside our homes, especially as families spend more time indoors,” said study lead author Yannai Kashtan, an air quality scientist at PSE Healthy Energy who was a graduate student in Jackson’s lab while doing research for the study.
Prioritizing indoor air quality
The researchers combined measurements of indoor air quality with data for outdoor air quality, building characteristics for 133 million residential dwellings, and statistical samplings of occupant behavior. They were able to paint a clear picture of where pollutants come from and the effects on human health. They also created U.S.-wide maps that quantify long- and short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide indoors and outdoors by zip code.
For most Americans, most exposure to nitrogen dioxide still comes from outdoor sources like cars and trucks burning fossil fuels. However, the maps revealed that for 22 million Americans – especially those living in smaller homes and in rural areas–cooking with gas leads to nitrogen dioxide levels that surpass recommended long-term safety thresholds when outdoor exposure alone would not. While stoves are proportionally responsible for the most nitrogen dioxide exposure in rural areas, total exposures were highest in large cities, where outdoor levels of nitrogen dioxide tend to be high and living spaces tend to be small, thus concentrating nitrogen dioxide produced by stoves.
Short-Term Pollution Spikes and Community Inequities
The researchers also found that the highest short-term exposures in the home are all attributable to gas stove usage rather than to outdoor sources because gas stove pollution comes in concentrated bursts.
Communities stand to benefit from interventions, such as rebates and tax incentives, that encourage cleaner cooking technologies and reduce exposure to harmful indoor pollutants. Benefits may be strongest for people living smaller homes, in rented units where landlords may not otherwise have an incentive to install electric stoves, and in communities where few families can afford the upfront cost of a new electric stove.
A previous Stanford-led study showed that long-term NO2 exposure is 60% higher among American Indian and Alaska Native households, and 20% higher among Black and Hispanic or Latino households compared to the national average. Many of these communities already face higher levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution from outdoor sources, such as vehicle exhaust and fossil industries.
“As we strive for cleaner air and healthier living, we should prioritize indoor air quality,” Jackson said. “Switching to electric stoves is a positive step towards cleaner cooking and better health.”
Reference: “Integrating indoor and outdoor nitrogen dioxide exposures in US homes nationally by ZIP code” by Yannai Kashtan, Chenghao Wang, Kari C Nadeau and Robert B Jackson, 2 December 2025, PNAS Nexus.
DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf341
The study was funded by the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and its Department of Earth System Science, and Stanford’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program.
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5 Comments
Stanford ‘Sustainability’ has been pushing the idea that gas stoves are bad for people’s health for some time. Inasmuch as the reason for existence for the “School of Sustainability” is to find and recommend fixes for problems, they have a bias towards finding problems, perhaps when they don’t even exist. The essence of objective science is the classic “disinterested” scientist. The re-naming of the Stanford Geology Department to the pretentious organization that replaced it, strongly suggests that objectivity and intellectual curiosity has been replaced by an agenda-driven organization that employs ‘saviors’ with PhDs.
I haven’t lived in a home without an over-stove exhaust vent in something like 70 years. I think that the ‘research’ is finding what it wants to find.
Most skilled chefs prefer gas burners. They are easier to regulate, pure and simple. The solution to the so-called environmental “problem” is simply to open the dadgum window. Like electric vehicle madnes, universal “electrification” goes too far, and results in shortages. We have plenty of good clean gas.
I am a serious chef. My window opens when I cook. I also bought a real range hood that exhausts out. Using a gas stove in an enclosed area is foolish and dangerous, kind of like setting up an article based on what is a study of obvious misuse. I’m not using an electric crap stove and first chance I get I’m getting a coal furnace for my home, IN NYC. Yes, you heard that right. If the streets can be full of illegals on Ebikes and people can live on piles of pee rags in doorways, try stopping my coal burner.
Wow,a lot of misinformed, you can’t give me facts morons…
How about you setting an example and providing us with the ‘facts,’ instead of an unsupported insult? It is generally held in science that critics resort to ad hominem insults when they don’t actually have facts to counter a claim. Unless you can provide some verifiable facts that are germane, all you have done is make yourself feel superior at the cost of proving the adage.