December 12th, 2017
There are over 39 million natural gas and propane household gas ranges, ovens, and cooktops (referred to, here, collectively as “ranges”) in the U. S. Even with the excellent safety record of this equipment, increasing attention is being given to combustion emissions from ranges. What combustion emissions from gas ranges are of concern to the public and the gas industry? The natural gas industry has devoted technical attention and research to issues of carbon monoxide (CO) since the 1920s and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions from unvented gas appliances since the 1970s as these emissions relate to safety and health of gas consumers. Both of these pollutants have received increasing public attention. When discussing gas consumer safety, CO is the primary combustion product of concern. The recent focus in the media on CO from gas ranges has been encouraged by the availability and aggressive marketing of low-cost CO detectors (now referred to as “alarms”). The media message sometimes delivered to consumers is that all levels of CO exposure are harmful, without providing information on the prevalence of CO in the environment and without public health-based interpretations on exposures that are actually hazardous to health.As a result, some consumers may be convinced that CO exposure, at any level and for any duration, is harmful to health.