Effects of cooking fuels on lung function in nonsmoking women.

A case-control study of 20- to 39-yr-old female participants in the Tecumseh Community Health Study compared use of cooking fuels and other factors in women from the highest and lowest quartiles of the lung function distribution. The forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1.0) was used as the index of ventilatory lung function. The use of a kitchen exhaust fan was significantly associated with low lung function. A larger proportion of women with low FEV1.0 used gas for cooking, but this difference was not statistically significant.