'Air is 3 times more toxic in kitchens than on streets'

Using a gas cooker in a stuffy modern kitchen could expose you to higher levels of toxic pollutants than roaming in a smong-filled street, a new study has found.

Researchers from the Sheffield University in the UK found that indoor air pollution in airtight kitchens can be three times more noxious than traffic-choked streets. And it becomes more worse by draft-free energy efficient homes, air fresheners and strong cleaning products, they said.

For the study, published in the Journal of Indoor and Buil Environment, the researchers compared three homes - a rural house split into two flats and used electric cookers and two other city centre apartments using gas appliances.

The scientists took air quality samples from outside and inside the homes over a four-week period, and found that only very low traces of highly-toxic carbon monoxide in the kitchen of the rural house, but levels were much higher in the flats where the gas ovens were turned on.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-09/science/32139772_1_indoor-air-pollution-kitchens-cookers