Gas Stoves Are Slowly Poisoning Homes and Cost Families Over 5,000 Dollars a Year in Hidden Health Effects, That “clean” gas stove? It’s costing you a fortune in health by Mihai Andrei, November 7, 2025, ZME Science
The gas stove in your kitchen might be slowly poisoning you. A striking new study warns these common appliances are a major source of indoor air pollution, carrying a severe and previously unquantified health cost.
The report, commissioned by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) in New Zealand, has important findings for anyone with a gas stove. The study focused on two pollutants (nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter), both of which are linked to premature mortality, cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations, and childhood asthma. The study found that gas stoves often leak both.
The Not-So-Clean Stove
For decades, cooking with gas was the standard. It was supposed to be clean, efficient, and easy. But it’s not clean at all. A study from Europe found that gas stoves can reduce lifespan by 1-2 years, and another study found that even when they’re shut off, stoves can leak methane. You can’t see it, but increasingly, gas stoves are starting to look like silent polluters in the heart of our homes.
But the new study didn’t just look at health effects. It looked at the economic impact of these health effects. Every time there is a premature death, someone is hospitalized for a cardiovascular or respiratory issue, or a child develops asthma, there is a resulting cost. The study calculated the costs of these events and then estimated the broader economic costs (the total cost to society, including things like lost productivity and the value of life loss) for stoves.
The figures are striking.
The annual indoor health cost of a single gas stove is estimated at $5,258 (adapted to 2025 US dollars). A significant part of this comes from the cases of childhood asthma. Unflued (vent-free) gas heaters were found to be even more dangerous, with an annual indoor health cost estimated at $11,680 per appliance.
The study also examined open fires and found them to be significantly more hazardous, with an estimated annual indoor health cost of $31,135. Meanwhile, an electric cooker doesn’t produce any negative externalities.
Putting a Price on Life
The largest “cost” in the report is for premature mortality. This is based on a concept used by governments worldwide called the Value of Statistical Life (VoSL). This isn’t the value of your specific life. It’s an economic measure of how much a society is willing to pay to reduce the risk of death.
For this 2025 study, the VoSL was updated to $15.69 million New Zealand Dollars, or just under $9 million USD. This is the “economic cost” to society. The “fiscal cost,” by contrast, is just the direct hospital bill paid by the government.
The economic cost was much greater than the fiscal one.
For a gas stove, the annual fiscal cost (hospital bills) is $129 per household. But the economic cost (the societal value of lost life and health) is $9,058. In other words, the ones that bear the brunt of this burden aren’t hospitals. They’re families, communities, and ultimately, the economy and society.
And even these numbers are likely an underestimate. The model only included health impacts from a previous 2016 study, and mortality calculations were only applied to adults over 30. The true cost is almost certainly higher.
A Problem for the Entire World
While this report was conducted in New Zealand, its findings are a chilling warning for every developed nation. The laws of chemistry are the same everywhere. The chemical and biological impacts of breathing pollutants are the same in North America, Europe, and Asia. New Zealand is not an outlier by any means.
It’s ironic. We’ve spent half a century successfully cleaning up the air outside. We’ve put filters on smokestacks and catalytic converters on cars. But we’ve allowed an unregulated source of toxic pollution to remain in our very homes. We’ve failed to account for the pollution sources we’ve trapped inside with us.
This report is a blaring fire alarm, both for individuals and for society at large. We need to start addressing gas stoves.
You can read the entire report here.