Gas cooking, respiratory health and white blood cell counts in children

The use of gas stoves has been associated with respiratory symptoms of chro nic airway inflammation and higher rates of respiratory infections. We used data from a 1992/93 survey of 2,198 East German school children (aged 5 to 14) to assess whether gas cooking increases respiratory symptoms and is as sociated with a chronic inflammatory process reflected by an increase in wh ite blood cell (WBC) count in children who do not exhibit signs of an acute respiratory infection. We found increases for the respiratory symptoms 'co ugh without cold' [odds ratio (OR) = 1.68; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 1 .18-2.39], 'cough in the morning' (OR = 1.58; CI, 1.23-2.04) and 'cough dur ing the day or at night' (OR = 1.42; CI, 1.13-1.78) in children living in h omes with gas ranges, but lifetime prevalence of asthma, bronchitis, wheeze , and the prevalence of acute infections were not affected. Fur thermore, w e examined WBC levels in a subgroup of 1,134 children for whom blood sample s were available and who did not suffer from an acute infection. We observe d small increases in the risk of having WBC counts above the 75(th) or 90(t h) percentile (8300 or 9800 cell counts per mu l) when children were expose d to gas cooking after adjustment for age, gender, and passive smoking (OR = 1.30; CI, 0.98-1.73, and OR = 1.38; CI, 0.91-2.10). The strongest effect estimates for chronic inflammation were found for those children likely to have been exposed at higher levels, that is when stoves had no fans, in sma ller homes, and for children spending more time indoors.