Is cooking on a gas stove safe during pregnancy?

What does the evidence say about gas stove cooking during pregnancy?

1. Nitrogen dioxide mainly acts as an irritant to the eyes, nose, throat, and respiratory tract, and prolonged exposure is linked to increased bronchial reactivity in people with asthma and reduced lung function in those with chronic lung disease; homes with gas stoves often have indoor NO2 levels that exceed outdoor levels. 1
2. The most effective way to reduce exposure is venting NO2 sources to the outdoors and keeping combustion appliances correctly installed, adjusted, and maintained, specifically including installing and using an exhaust fan vented to the outdoors over a gas stove. 1
3. A persistently yellow-tipped rather than blue flame signals a gas burner is not properly adjusted and is releasing more pollutants than it should; a gas company can adjust it, and a stove hood fan vented outdoors, rather than one that just recirculates air, meaningfully reduces exposure during cooking. 2
4. Modeling of gas stove emissions found gas burners added an estimated 25 to 33 percent to week-averaged indoor NO2 levels in summer and 35 to 39 percent in winter, and homes without a venting range hood frequently exceeded federal and state health-based exposure benchmarks in this analysis. 3
5. The same modeling estimated that during a typical winter week, roughly 12 million Californians could be exposed to indoor NO2 levels exceeding ambient air standards, with cooks and young children assumed to be in closest proximity to the stove and therefore at the highest modeled exposure. 3
6. Separate research on secondhand smoke and personal care product exposure, rather than gas stoves specifically, found that regular window ventilation eliminated the elevated odds of preterm birth and low birth weight otherwise seen with poor ventilation, supporting ventilation broadly as a meaningful way to reduce indoor air pollution's potential impact on pregnancy outcomes. 4
7. EPA explicitly advises never using a gas stove to heat a home, since that use produces far more combustion byproducts than the appliance and any ventilation are designed to handle. 2

Is gas stove cooking safe in each trimester?

• First trimester. Early pregnancy is a reasonable time to check whether your range hood actually vents outdoors or just recirculates air, and to start the habit of running it, or opening a window, every time you cook. If you have asthma or another respiratory condition, mention your kitchen setup to your provider now rather than later.
• Second trimester. As you spend more time at home, small daily habits add up. Keeping burners properly adjusted so the flame burns blue rather than yellow-tipped, and stepping out of the kitchen briefly during and right after cooking when practical, are easy additions to your ventilation routine.
• Third trimester. Late pregnancy often means more time at home and more cooking. Continue consistent ventilation, and remember EPA's guidance that a gas stove should never be used to heat a room, an unrelated but important safety point for any home with a gas range.

Steps that reduce gas stove air pollutant exposure