Characterizing household air pollutant concentrations associated with an electrification program in the rural San Joaquin Valley

Indoor nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) are concerns in U.S. households, especially those that cook using gas or propane stoves. Exposures to these and other indoor pollutants are linked to a variety of adverse health outcomes, including asthma morbidity, that disproportionately affect low-income households. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 138 homes in four low-income rural communities in California's San Joaquin Valley, comparing air pollutant concentrations between households that participated in a state electrification program and households using propane or natural gas for cooking. In each home, pollutants were monitored for approximately one month using personal air monitors and for 48 h using reference-grade instruments. Median 48-h average indoor NO₂ concentrations were 63% lower in electric stove homes (electric: 6.0 ppb, gas: 16.0 ppb, <i>p</i> < 0.001). No electric stove homes had 48-h indoor NO₂ concentrations exceeding the California annual guideline of 30 ppb, while 17% of gas homes did. Additionally, no electric stove homes had 1-h rolling-average NO₂ concentrations exceeding the 100-ppb level deemed unhealthy for sensitive groups by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whereas 41% of gas homes exceeded this threshold. PM_2.5 concentrations were similar across groups, indicating that cooking-related emissions from food were the dominant contributor to PM_2.5 mass concentrations rather than particles generated from gas combustion. Our evaluation of monitoring durations showed that two to four days of NO₂ data and one week of PM_2.5 data provided reliable estimates of longer-term averages, suggesting that shorter campaigns may yield robust estimates of indoor air quality. These results support the provision of electric cooking technologies as a strategy to address air quality-related health risks in rural, low-income communities and provide new evidence from an understudied population that can inform future indoor air quality research and energy transition policies.