Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds that
"interior air quality in homes that cook with a gas stove can reach
pollutant levels that would be illegal if found outdoors."Full Article
Contaminates include nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, and carbon monoxide.
My inspection reports always stress that in all homes with gas cook-top or ovens, the occupant needs to run the range hood during the entire cooking period and for at least 1 minutes after the burners have shut down. However, the above mentioned article also touches on range hood effectiveness:
"Previous studies have found that range hoods vary widely in their effectiveness at removing pollutants. In a laboratory study of seven models ranging from $40 to $650, Singer found capture efficiencies ranging from 15 to 98 percent, and also found that a higher price did not guarantee better performance."
So it is important that the range hood stays on long enough after the cooking period to adequately remove the contaminants. A better option is to have never installed the gas appliance in the first place.
