Free Change

Cooking with Gas

Originally uploaded by gregoniemeyer

I installed one of our Pufftron monitors in my kitchen to see how the air changes when we cook. We are a family of 5 so we prepare food three times a day, and we have at least one sit-down meal together. We have a gas range. Of course, the open flames from cooking and baking produce “tons” of CO2, and all the spicing, frying and yes, burning, produces plenty of VOCs. Our monitor showed very high CO2 levels before every meal, especially when we were baking. Ironically, our dinner table is next to the kitchen and the sit-down meal happens in the most polluted place and at the most polluted time. Remedies? We changed the source of our heat and are now using an electric toaster oven for baking and heating. Things are looking up, and the oven makes great biscuits. We do have a peace lily next to the dinner table. We also ventilate any time we cook, and sit-down dinners happen with some windows open.