Gas vs electric: the hidden health costs in your WA home

Most Australians grew up thinking gas was the clean option. It burns blue, it doesn't smell, so it must be fine. The research now points the other way.

Gas indoors is a health risk

A 2018 study in the Medical Journal of Australia (Knibbs et al.) estimated that 12.3% of childhood asthma in Australia is attributable to gas stoves used for cooking. That's a sizeable share of cases tracing back to the kitchen.

The pattern isn't unique to Australia. Studies from the US, Europe, and Asia point the same way: burning gas indoors produces pollutants that affect lungs, and children most of all.

What gas combustion puts in your air

Burning natural gas indoors releases a mix of pollutants:

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) irritates airways and worsens asthma. Inside homes with gas stoves, it regularly climbs above the levels allowed in outdoor air.

Carbon monoxide (CO) from incomplete combustion reduces your blood's ability to carry oxygen. Low levels bring headaches and dizziness; high levels are dangerous.

Formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, is released whenever gas burns. It irritates eyes, nose, and throat.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) travels deep into the lungs and crosses into the bloodstream. The World Health Organization sets no safe threshold for it.

Natural gas can also leak from appliances while they're off, and it carries trace amounts of benzene, another carcinogen.

The asthma connection

| Finding | Source | |---------|--------| | 12.3% of childhood asthma attributable to gas cooking | Knibbs et al., Medical Journal of Australia, 2018 | | 42% higher risk of current asthma | Lin, Brunekreef et al. meta-analysis of 41 studies, Int. J. Epidemiology, 2013 | | 24% higher lifetime asthma risk | Same Lin et al. meta-analysis, 2013 |

Kids carry more of this load. They breathe faster, so they take in more per kilogram of body weight, their lungs are still developing, and they spend more time indoors near the kitchen.

Range hoods help, but only so much

Even with the range hood on, NO2 can rise above outdoor air standards within about 10 minutes of cooking. The pollutants spread through the house and stay raised for hours. Many range hoods recirculate the air rather than vent it outside, which does little.

Beyond asthma

It's not only lungs. Fine-particle pollution is linked, more broadly, to cardiovascular harm — raised blood pressure and inflammation among them. Low-level carbon monoxide is linked to headaches, dizziness, and fatigue.

Over the long term, formaldehyde and benzene are exactly the kind of compounds we regulate tightly in outdoor air. Indoors, near a gas flame, they can sit at higher concentrations than they ever would outside.

Gas heating matters too

Cooking gets the headlines, but gas heating deserves attention.

Unflued gas heaters are the worst of it — every combustion product goes straight into the room. They're banned in bedrooms in some states. If you've got one, it's the first thing worth replacing.

Flued gas heaters are better, though not risk-free. Backdrafting happens, older units leak, and they still emit on startup.

Ducted gas heating is the safest gas option, but it still needs regular servicing to keep the combustion chamber sealed. And it's far less efficient than a heat pump doing the same job.

The electric alternatives

Every electric appliance produces zero indoor combustion emissions. That's the starting point.

Induction cooktops are faster than gas, more precise, and safer (no open flame, cooler surface). They're cheaper to run, too. The adjustment period is about a week.

Heat pump hot water uses three to five times less energy than gas. No indoor emissions, lower running costs, and modern units are quiet enough for a Perth backyard.

Reverse-cycle air conditioning heats and cools at three to five times the efficiency of gas heating. It filters the air as it runs, rather than adding to what's in it.

Electric ovens produce no combustion products and heat more evenly than gas.

What you can do

Right now (free)

• Run the range hood every time you cook — as long as it vents outside
• Open windows for cross-ventilation while cooking
• Never use the gas stove or oven to heat a room
• Get gas appliances serviced once a year

This month ($40–200)

• Fit a CO detector ($40–100)
• Try a portable induction hotplate ($100–200) — most people are won over within a week

When appliances die (replace with electric)

• Cooktop gone? Go induction ($800–2,000 installed). Biggest health win per dollar.
• Hot water gone? Heat pump ($2,500–4,500). Cuts running costs as well.
• Gas heater gone? Reverse-cycle AC ($2,000–5,000). Heats and cools.

The endgame

Once the gas appliances are gone, disconnect the gas line. You save ~$120-200/year in supply charges (varies by retailer), and the leak risk goes with it. Add solar to cover the electricity your new appliances use.

What switching costs

| Upgrade | Cost | Annual saving | Health benefit | |---------|------|----------------|----------------| | Induction cooktop | $1,000–2,500 | $50–150 | Ends cooking emissions | | Heat pump hot water | $2,500–4,500 | $100–200 | Removes a major gas use | | Split system AC | $2,000–4,000 | $50–150 | Replaces gas heating | | Gas disconnection | $0–200 | ~$120-200/year | Ends leak risk |

You don't need to do it all at once. The simplest rule: stop repairing gas appliances when they break, and put in electric instead.

Renting?

You can still improve things. Run the range hood, open windows while you cook, and grab a $100 portable induction hotplate. If you've got kids with asthma, it's worth raising indoor air quality with your landlord or property manager.

Where the health bodies land

This isn't a fringe view. Asthma Australia lists gas cooking among its asthma triggers and points families toward electric alternatives, and the National Asthma Council Australia publishes guidance on gas stoves and children's asthma. In the coverage of the Australian research, the comparison that keeps coming up is secondhand smoke: a child in a home that cooks with gas faces an asthma risk in a similar range to a child growing up around cigarette smoke.

The short version

Gas indoors carries a real health cost, and kids with asthma feel it most. The upside is just as clear: every appliance you switch to electric cleans up your indoor air a little more. Cooking is the place to start — it's your most frequent exposure, and induction is genuinely nicer to cook on.

Ready to make your home healthier? Use our Electrification Calculator to see what switching to electric would mean for your household — for your bills and your family's wellbeing.