Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This study was conducted to assess the current impact of natural gas appliances on air quality in California homes. Data were collected via telephone interviews and measurements inside and outside of 352 homes. Passive samplers measured time-resolved CO and time-integrated NOX, NO2, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde over ~6-day periods in November 2011 - April 2012 and October 2012 - March 2013. The fraction of indoor NOXand NO2attributable to indoor sources was estimated. NOX, NO2, and highest 1-h CO were higher in homes that cooked with gas and increased with amount of gas cooking. NOXand NO2were higher in homes with cooktop pilot burners, relative to gas cooking without pilots. Homes with a pilot burner on a floor or wall furnace had higher kitchen and bedroom NOXand NO2compared to homes without a furnace pilot. When scaled to account for varying home size and mixing volume, indoor-attributed bedroom and kitchen NOXand kitchen NO2were not higher in homes with wall or floor furnace pilot burners, although bedroom NO2was higher. In homes that cooked 4 h or more with gas, self-reported use of kitchen exhaust was associated with lower NOX, NO2, and highest 1-h CO. Gas appliances were not associated with higher concentrations of formaldehyde or acetaldehyde.