Young children who live in homes with gas cooking stoves may be at increased risk for respiratory illnesses, research from Hong Kong suggests.

“Gas cooking can be a significant source of indoor air pollution,” Dr. T. W. Wong of the Chinese University of Hong Kong told Reuters Health.

Wong explained that the burning of cooking gas may generate nitrogen dioxide. Smokey cooking fumes, particularly from deep frying, may also contribute to indoor air pollution, the investigator said. Both types of indoor air pollution may increase the likelihood of respiratory diseases, especially among the very young and very old, according to Wong.

“Ventilation of the kitchen is important to prevent the accumulation of these air pollutants in our homes,” Wong said.

The researchers studied 426 children aged 6 or younger who lived in two middle-class Hong Kong housing complexes. All of the apartments had gas stoves. One complex, however, was near an industrial center and other sources of air pollution, while the other was in an area with less air pollution.

Respiratory illnesses were almost three times as common among children living in the high-pollution area as in the low-pollution area, the researchers found.

Among children who lived in the more polluted area, exposure to cooking gas was not significantly related to the risk of respiratory illness.

But among children who lived in the less polluted area, gas cooking was associated with an increased risk, the study found. The more meals that were cooked on a gas stove, the greater was a child’s risk of developing a respiratory illness, such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis or pneumonia.

The results of the study appear in the July issue of the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Wong’s team speculates that gas cooking may not have much of an effect on respiratory illnesses among children living in areas with high levels of outdoor air pollution because they are already exposed to plenty of nitrogen dioxide in the air. In less polluted areas, however, nitrogen dioxide released from gas stoves may have more of an impact because children living in these areas do not inhale as many pollutants in their neighborhoods, according to the report.

“The obvious next step would be to conduct measurements of these air pollutants and quantify the relation between their concentrations and ill health,” Wong added.

SOURCE: Archives of Disease in Childhood, July 2004.