The linked article states, "Poor indoor air quality in U.S. homes, aided by poor kitchen ventilation, is a key contributor to our near lowest life expectancy of all developed countries (32nd of 34) and highest rates of chronic disease."

wdccruise - I have already had this fight… the information about hoods is excellent. The sensationalism is ridiculous.

Here is my post related to the indoor air quality claim… indoor air quality is actually ranked fairly high on the list of reasons for health issues world-wide, but not in the U.S. where it is near the bottom. Moreover it has been going down consistently, in 1990 when houses breathed more, we were at about .28 deaths per 100,000 people from indoor air quality, in 2017 we were at .09 deaths per 100,000 people. For perspective, India was at about 51 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017.

Great information, thank you. I was under the impression without gas, I just needed to eliminate odors and grease. Information is power.

build.com's website is great for selecting range hoods as its search engine lets you specify many product parameters to narrow down the options. You can often find owners' reviews on the Home Depot website.

“I was under the impression without gas, I just needed to eliminate odors and grease. Information is power.”

Perspective is also power. Conversion varnish is still the most popular finish for mass produced US cabinets. The acid catalyst used in conversion varnish is Xylene, which is essentially formaldehyde… a known carcinogen. In most kitchens off gassing from the cabinets will cause more indoor air quality (IAQ) problems than non-combustion cooking does. Your clothes, furniture, carpeting, etc. are all likely adding to pollutants to cause problems for your indoor air quality. Still those pale in comparison to the problems for IAQ of simply living in a city. Do you mow your yard? That’s bad for IAQ too.

There is a danger when becoming too focused on the down side of any single component of a system. It is valuable to step back to consider that component’s weighted contribution to the overall system.

I have lived (for a short period) in Hong Kong and Japan, which are the two places with the longest life expectancy and cooking ventilation is much more rare in those countries.

@OP, I agree induction requires less ventilation than gas because we're only dealing with what you're cooking and what you're cooking with/on, which is still not great (plastics, plasticizers BPA or otherwise, microplastics, nanoplastics, etc.), but at least no worries about the 20+ carcinogens from the combustion of NG/LP.

@bry911 I think it's also important not to downplay the low odds of IAQ-related death, especially when making decisions for our children. Remember in Hong Kong and Japan where they have long life expectancy despite lack of ventilation, they are MUCH more active and eat MUCH less processed and fast foods, which probably masks deaths related to IAQ; imagine what their average life expectancy would be with better lifestyles AND better IAQ.

@D Ahn - “I think it's also important not to downplay the low odds of IAQ-related death, especially when making decisions for our children. Remember in Hong Kong and Japan where they have long life expectancy despite lack of ventilation, they are MUCH more active and eat MUCH less processed and fast foods, which probably masks deaths related to IAQ”

You are just making things up and hoping they are true because you think they should be.

First, you are taking my post out of context. My post exists to counter a claim that says indoor air quality is a significant reason for lower U.S. life expectancy.

It is not... We have the data. In the U.S. in 2019 we were at .09 deaths per 100,000 people because of IAQ and half of those are CO2 poisoning. So to say that there is a relationship between IAQ and lower U.S. life expectancy is simply ridiculous. The U.S. life expectancy is about 77.28, if we removed all IAQ related deaths it would go up to about 77.28… they are literally a rounding error.

This is why perspective is important. There is nothing wrong with a great exhaust system for your home,it will probably make cooking better for you. There is something wrong with convincing people they need to spend thousands extra on kitchen exhaust if they want to live.

@bry911 Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there, this isn't personal, at least not a personal attack on you. But it IS personal… each person's personal decisions about what's best for our families.

Just because I didn't provide data doesn't mean I'm "making things up": it's indisputable that the US consumes WAY more processed food than the rest of the world, though we are successfully closing that gap by exporting American-style fast food and packaged foods.

I understood what you meant, that out of all causes of death in the US, IAQ deaths are low. Assuming your figure is correct (0.09/100K - only 1 significant digit isn't very precise), your "rounding error" in a country of 330 million amounts to ~300 deaths a year, which may not mean much to you when they're strangers, but each means the world to their loved ones.

Two matters of "perspective":

1) the number would likely be a lot higher if we weren't dying of other things first, like heart disease, cancer, accidents, strokes, COVID, Flu, etc.

2) I'd still prefer to lose 300 less Americans a year to IAQ-related diseases, and I'm going to do what I can to make sure my loved ones don't end up as one of those 300.

“I'd still prefer to lose 300 less Americans a year to IAQ-related diseases, and I'm going to do what I can to make sure my loved ones don't end up as one of those 300.”

I commend you for that. I think it is cool that you have chosen to never eat out at a restaurant. Are your walls painted? I also assume you have no stains or finishes on kitchen cabinets.

One of the most popular cabinet finishes in America is conversion varnish. Conversion varnish is catalyzed with Xylene and since OSHA doesn’t want workers breathing in too much Xylene, coatings manufacturers bound the xylene molecules do it off gasses for months or years instead of a few weeks.

The reason that real perspective is important is because it lets you put resources where they will make the most difference. Even if we were to restrict the population to IAQ deaths, cooking ventilation wouldn’t stand out as a major cause of IAQ deaths.

You are 4,000 percent more likely to die on the stairs in your home than the air. You are hundreds of percent more likely to die from outdoor air pollution than indoor. I could make a list of thousands upon thousands of things more deadly that most people do regularly, many of which could be changed rather inexpensive to drastically improve safety.

So, it seems disingenuous that you are really so concerned about these 300 people while ignoring millions of other more easily preventable deaths. In fact, it seems a bit convenient.

@bry911 Well this seems to have gone completely off the rails. Your patronizing tone and personal attacks on total strangers are baffling. I never disputed the existence of much greater dangers than poor IAQ, but you may note that none of the much deadlier things you mention are the topic of this thread.

It's a free country, so you feel free to keep proselytizing the disregarding of all but the top 3 – or even 10 – ways to die, and I'll keep trying to keep my 6-year old safe from all I can, including junk food and screen devices and plastics and preventable diseases… and yes, even indoor toxic combustion products. Even if they have a low probability of killing him, I'd still rather he not breathe them in. That is, if it's all right with you… though I'm fairly certain from your past rants that it is NOT all right.

Bry911 did you mean carbon monoxide?

The real irony here is that I have actually lobbied for better IAQ, I began my career as a chemical engineer in coatings research, working to remove toxins from paint. It is sad that in America most IAQ improvements have come from OSHA. We have no problem filling the air in your home with deadly chemicals as long as the workers wear proper safety equipment when producing it.

I have worked for and with groups trying to change that and have been to Washington to aid in doing so.

The blog post that was linked (now deleted) noted “Poor indoor air quality in U.S. homes, aided by poor kitchen ventilation, is a key contributor to our near lowest life expectancy of all developed countries (32nd of 34) and highest rates of chronic disease.”

That is simply a lie, it isn’t a “key contributor” to our “near lowest life expectancy of all developed countries.” You later tried to establish a position where it could be true if… but there is no evidence to support your position either and it is just as dangerous.

I think misinformation is damaging. It encourages people to spend their scarce resources (money) in less efficient ways. Statistically speaking, the clothes, furniture, textiles, etc. in your home are bigger contributors to poor IAQ than your cooking. So spending your money on better ventilation and believing you have addressed a major problem is itself problematic. For most people that choice will limit their ability to make other choices, some of which are likely to be much more impactful on IAQ.

So, again… I think the lie is dangerous. I think those who defend the lie are doing harm.

Is there something wrong with the rendition of this thread (discussion)? We have a hood model question 'answered' by an IAQ debate. No where is the OP's question answered; and the "linked article" link seems to be missing.

There are missing posts which makes this thread a bit difficult to read after the fact.

The content of the now missing posts were the only point of contention originally.

I would like to reiterate that I have no problem with the information given on kitchen exhaust systems, only the exaggeration of the health consequences.

Thanks @bry911. Did the OP get some sort of answer among the deleted posts?

Note to Houzz moderators: In my opinion, deleted posts, whether deleted by the poster or by Houzz, should have a remaining marker, e.g., <Deleted Post>.

@kaseki, I thought it was weird but I assumed it was a browser issue.

@bry911, It's a problem that ALL media, traditional and social, sensationalize the negative for clicks. And I appreciate your fervor for solving the larger IAQ issues. Just consider that your passionate lashing out is likely counterproductive to your cause. I swore off this thread because of it, but here I am again LOL

I am not sure when the post was deleted as I only noticed it was missing when @kaseki asked about it.

“Just consider that your passionate lashing out is likely counterproductive to your cause.”

Hmmm… please take a moment to consider how your post looked to me. Six days ago you resurrected a thread that has been dead for a couple of months in order to take issue with my response to a now deleted post.

Had you commented here contemporaneously, the conversation might have gone differently. Necro’ing threads is typically considered rude and so I considered doing that largely just to take issue with my post, a rather rude attack on my position. If you didn’t intend to pick a fight, then I apologize for misconstruing it, but contend that is exactly why necro’ing threads is considered rude.