Differences in NO2 levels in kitchens with gas or electric cookers
Melia RJW., Du C., Darby SC., Palmes ED., Goldstein BD.
A designed experiment is described in which the reliability of personal samplers for measuring the concentration of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was investigated in kitchens. The samplers were placed in triplets, 4 ft (1.2 m) above floor level, at 2 and 1/2 ft (0.6 and 2.2 m) from the cookers. Four kitchens were used, two with gas and two with electric cookers. Each gas kitchen was matched with an electric kitchen on a variety of environmental factors which might have affected the concentrations of NO2. Both gas kitchens were using "natural" gas. The instruments were found to be highly reliable. The overall average measurement was 40.9 ppb and the S.D. of the measurement error in the instrument was estimated to be 1.2 ppb. The differences in the concentrations at the two distances from the cookers were not consistent. The average hourly concentration of NO2 in gas kitchens was more than seven times greater than that in electric kitchens (72.3 ppb compared with 9.5 ppb, p < 0.05). This result suggests that further research is needed to determine whether the high levels of NO2 found in gas kitchens have adverse effects on health. © 1978.