The free-standing gas heater, a familiar sight to generations of schoolchildren, may not be as benign as it appears, according to a major Australian study.
The study has found a reduction in asthma attacks and chest tightness in asthmatic children associated with the removal of unflued gas heater exposure from school classrooms.
The study, published this week in the International Journal of Epidemiology, said the reduction was associated with lower levels of nitrogen dioxide in the classrooms without unflued gas heaters. Nitrogen dioxide, which is produced as the gas burns, is a known irritant to the air passages.
The study showed that unflued gas heaters released nitrogen dioxide directly into the rooms they occupied, reaching levels over three times as high as those in classrooms that had electric or flued gas heaters. Such levels were associated with higher rates of asthma attacks.
The study's Chief Investigator is Professor Louis Pilotto, Head of the Department of General Practice and Director of the Flinders Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Flinders.
Professor Pilotto received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council to conduct the study while he was based at the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Outcomes Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.